After the Battle
by cmccrzy
Summary: What was going through Ryo's head after the first appearance of the mysterious white armor? How will its appearance affect our favorite five armored warriors?
1. Chapter 1: Waking Up

Chapter 1

For a moment Ryo felt the sensation of intense heaviness on his eyes – he could not open them, no matter how he tried. The nightmare kept pulling him back, trying to drown him once more…

And then that awful force lifted. He snapped his eyes open and sunlight momentarily blinded him while he lay there on his bed, shaking, his fingers clutching at the bedsheet covering his body. It took several moments for him to fully register the pain in his fingers, and as he tried to open his hands, he winced. He shut his eyes again briefly, trying to drown out the dream… the nightmare… the memories…

When he reopened his eyes he lay in bed for a moment, still breathing hard. When his vision settled, he looked up at a dark ceiling. He was eventually able to sit up, and the blanket fell off his chest to pool over his lap and legs. A few moments passed where he could only stare at the blue cloth covering his feet and feel the sweat dripping down his brow as he tried to drown out the fear, the-

_Where am I?_

Feeling a breeze on his skin, he looked down and saw that he wasn't wearing his armor anymore, though he couldn't remember taking it off. He wore no shirt, and, when he checked, he saw that he had on a set of nightpants.

He looked around to find himself in an unfamiliar room. It wasn't his apartment in the city, that was certain. it was a nice bedroom with blue-painted walls, a vase holding a bouquet on a small wooden dresser by his left, beyond which stood a shut wooden door. He noted windows on either side of the bed, letting in sunlight. Opposite the closed door was a glass door showing a view of the outside and the rungs on a balcony of some sort.

Byakuen growled and bumped his large furred head over the edge of the bed and against his human's hand. Ryo smiled and pet him, ruffling the white fur, making the large cat purr.

He turned to his left to see a nightstand, upon which rested his armor crystal, glittering with red and orange light in the sun. As he stared at it, he tried to recall what had happened - if he remembered coming here, lying down, perhaps taking a nap…

But there was nothing. Just… just the battle and… and they had won, hadn't they? He remembered… Remembered nearly failing, remembered falling… falling and seeing his friends there. His friends with him. Returning to the safehouse, half-aware. Then going to sleep. How long had he been asleep? He couldn't recall waking up before now…

He pushed the bedsheet off and put his feet on the ground. As he tried to stand he stumbled and grabbed for Byakuen clumsily, who was up and there to support him, as always. Ryo smiled down at the tiger and reasoned that he must have been sleeping for some time, to be so weak and unsteady.

A zinging in his head made him put his left hand to his forehead. Headache from sleeping too long? Rising too fast? Was he still injured? How was he injured? He couldn't recall.

He heard voices coming from beyond the glass door and looked up. He let go of Byakuen and stretched a little, trying to regain proper use of his legs, and, after a few moments and some help from a strong tiger, managed to accomplish it. Then he moved to the glass door, opened it, and stepped outside onto a large balcony.

More sunlight and a light breeze found him out there, brushing his face, hair, and chest. He shut his eyes for a moment, bathing in the warmth and the feel of the wind on his skin, fighting off the chill of his nightmares. When he reopened them, he looked out over a large green expanse, surrounding by forest. There was a lake a far ways off, glittering blue.

He crossed his arms on the rail and rested there as he looked out, a light smile on his face as he drank in the beauty.

"Hey Shin, here!"

The familiar voices of his friends called his attention back down the grass, close to where he was. Shin and Shu were doing some sort of acrobatic exercise together, as Ryo watched Shin run and leap forward to land with his hand on Shu's raised one, so that Shu held Shin up in a one-arm handstand in the air. They stood that way for several moments, both sweating, with only slight trembling, and then Shin pressed down and leapt off while Shu pushed him up and off, and Shin landed on his feet a short ways away.

"Nice job, guys," Touma said, watching from a picnic table nearby. He had a laptop out before him, but was grinning at the other two.

Ryo looked around and spotting Seiji sitting, cross-legged, in the grass a short ways away. His eyes were shut. But as Ryo caught sight of him, he opened his eyes and looked straight up at him. A smile broke out over his face, "Hey Ryo! You're awake!"

That caught the attention of the other three, so they all looked up at him, and Ryo suddenly felt a little embarrassed. He put up a hand to wave, not knowing what else to do.

"Good to see you awake, Ryo!" Shu called up.

As he looked out at them, seeing them all out of armor, in jeans and t-shirts, relaxing in the sun, he could almost forget-

_I see you there, Ryo. Kekeke… you cannot run forever!_

He felt his throat constrict and found it hard to breathe. A look of fear came over his face as he turned and ran back inside the room, away from them all. Away from seeing them call out to him, shouting for him to come help them. Away from Arago's demonic face, leering hungrily at him.

He didn't make it to the bed and simply fell to the ground, curled up in a ball, and pressed his hands to his eyes, trying to drown out the images, the words…

_Help us, Ryo! He's killing us! He'll destroy everything! Help us, Ryo! Help us!_

_Come out, come out, wherever you are, my dear little senshi. I will find you eventually._

_Ryo!_

* * *

When he opened his eyes again he was back on the bed, and the room was dark. He sat up and turned to look out the window. It was nighttime, and he could see a large white moon resting over the trees.

He was shaking again, and the feel of sweaty sheets met his fingers. His body was slick with it and his hair clung to his face.

All he wanted to do was curl up back under the sheets for the rest of his life. Curl up where no one could hurt him, like how he thought when he was little. Just stay there and away from all the terrible things in the world…

He felt the tug of the armor, even as it rested on the nightstand. Felt the heat of it, reaching for the cold, fearful center of his being, trying to warm. He reached out and grasped the glowing red sphere in his hand, pulling it over to his heart. He shut his eyes, letting the warmth seep through his body, pushing back the dreams for a moment. Thoughts of sunlight and sunny beaches and campfires filled his mind. He felt the warm air in the room and Byakuen's body heat emanating from the floor. As he stretched out his senses, he felt the body heat of four others in the building, a ways away. Downstairs, it felt like. His friends. In his mind, their fiery forms were wreathed in the colors of their armor… or was it that the armor was the color of their spirits?

He clutched at the crystal as the trembling returned. He couldn't face them. He just couldn't. He'd failed to help them. He'd given up. He didn't understand what happened, where that strange white armor came from, or the power that came with it. He could barely remember what happened – the armor had used him, though it should have worked the other way around. But wasn't that all that had happened recently? A strange armor with a mind of its own, taking him over to wreak some sort of havoc? There was so much they didn't know about the armors. Now they knew that the armors had originally been a part of Arago's armor. A part of his body, in truth. Then Kaos had broken the armor and forged them into nine smaller armors. Since then they had done… what? Wreak havoc, fight battles... Although Kaos had taken the vast capability to wage war away from Arago, he had truly just miniaturized it, allowing the armors to spread out and cause chaos on their own, in more places than Arago had ever tried at once.

He felt that call to chaos, every time he donned the armor. The call to blaze, to burn… to destroy everything in his path… He had felt it in the volcano, when Shutendoji had come for him. All he wanted was to attack his enemy and destroy him utterly.

It terrified him, that call. That desire to destroy. It was not a part of who he was. He didn't want to destroy. He hadn't wanted to hold this much responsibility in his hands – the fate of the _world_, who _does_ that? And despite the call of that power, Arago had terrified him. The entire demon realm had terrified him. His army was a never-ending tide of monsters that he could send after the senshi, and Arago himself was a giant _spirit_ they were somehow expected to kill? And then the demon lord had absorbed all of his friends and become even more terrifying… Until all that was left was Ryo, who had apparently been expected to face him alone. What other choice had he had, than to sacrifice himself? There was nowhere to run, and he was hurt.

_Is this all I'm left with, then? Lying in bed, afraid to leave my room – or whoever's room this is – caught between nightmares and the fear of facing people I called friends. People I let down._

_What did I do, back there, when it all went to hell? What did I do? That power it… it felt so much stronger than the armor. It was brighter and hotter than any flame I've ever used in my normal armor. And it hurt, it… it hurt…_

Finally cutting through the nightmares was the sheer weariness in his bones. No doubt he _had_ been sleeping for some time, and that probably aided his less-than-healthy state. But he felt like someone had been using his body as a punching bag for at least a week. It didn't feel as bad as it had after the battle, when he had to truly fight to keep his eyes open and his body moving so that he wasn't being _entirely_ carried along by friends who were at least nearly as exhausted as he was after they all died-and-didn't-die and _how_ was he supposed to understand anything that was going on in his life anymore when he was having thoughts like _that_?

The wooden door creaked open and a light flicked on. Ryo turned to see Touma walking in with a smile and a tray. "Hey Ryo. Just wanted to bring you something to eat, if you can. You've been asleep for a long time and you need to start getting your strength back."

Ryo sat fully up and took the tray from Touma, looking over a plate of food and a glass of water.

"We tried to check your temperature while you were out, until the thermometer burned Shu's hand. But then we kind of figured that, what with the fire element of your armor and all, it was kind of a no-win scenario. It's like trying to check Shin's temperature. He moves between freezing and lukewarm. It's weird. I'm nearly as bad," he flexed his fingers, staring down at them incredulously, "I get pretty darn cold, too. I guess it's supposed to be like high up in the sky, or even space." He shook his head in disbelief. "Nice to know we won't be able to tell whether we're all sick by the normal means, anyway."

"How long was I asleep?" Ryo asked, not knowing how else to respond to Touma's words and the very odd thought that no one could take his temperature because it was far over the average human's.

Touma smiled nervously, "Oh, heh, it's uh… been about two weeks now."

Ryo simply stared at him for several moments.

"But to be honest, all of us were _really_ tired. Shu stayed in bed for five days. We thought you were both going to sleep forever until he finally got up. Seiji recovered fastest after two days and checked up around town to see how things were. I got up the next day and went out to get some groceries and stuff – we were starving – and then Shin woke up two days later. We've been stretching and exercising, it's true, but there's also been a lot of sleeping and just relaxing. We all feel like we've been running marathons. That final battle was just… intense."

Ryo looked back down at the tray.

"So you should eat. And then, if you want to go back to sleep, we'd understand. It's just we kind of… I mean, we were getting really worried. That white armor that showed up was just… it was unbelievable. But we don't really know what it did to you. We thought it might have done you in permanently, maybe. The only thing we could judge by was the fact that your skin was still warm. Shin said we should take you into a hospital… but Seiji and I think that's a bad idea. We don't really know how the armors are changing us – judging by the whole temperature thing, and any number of other things – and who knows how a hospital would see that? Or what they would do to try and counteract it? We didn't want to kill you trying to put you back together!"

_The white armor. _It all came back to that. That… that power, whatever it was. The blaze in his hands, what he unleashed with his attack. The power… the sheer power… Power to obliterate Arago forever. Power to destroy his armies, the entire demon realm, if he so chose. Power just waiting to be directed. Hungering… hungering…

He heard the crash and Byakuen's growl as he knocked the tray off of his lap and onto the floor to put his hands to his head, afraid of the memory, trembling once more. He ignored Touma's cry of alarm. Everything faded.

And that was the problem. Beneath the pain and the nightmares of that strange realm, he remembered. It wasn't truly fear of it all he had felt.

It was exultation. He wanted to fight. He wanted to destroy it all. Even as he stood alone before Arago, a small part of his mind hadn't been afraid. Had wanted to run out and throw all of his power at the demon. To laugh in the creature's face in one final blaze of glory.

And when the white armor had taken him… it had felt so _good_. That sense that he was so powerful. Unstoppable, even. Arago had been nothing – blown aside like a leaf in the wind. He'd felt that raw energy in his hands, and if he hadn't been moving in the steps of his attack, he knew he would have thrown his head back and laughed at the sheer feeling of it.

_I destroyed a demon lord, the strongest demon lord, the one who killed Kaos, who commanded the Demon Mashou… destroyed him in a single blast of power. And it felt… it felt _good_ to be that powerful. It felt amazing…_

And then complete exhaustion had descended on him. Like gravity was trying triply hard to press him into the ground. The power was gone, and he was just a human again. Just a weak human.

But he could still feel it. Trickling in from the armor crystal, and trickling in from Touma, standing nearby. Touma's spirit, which he could feel so strongly. His spirit-no, the Tenku armor. He turned to look at his friend, and the image of the blue armor briefly superimposed itself over the blue-haired boy's body. It called to him too - to the crystal that had fallen into his lap. To his spirit. The fire lurking in the crystal depths, in his chest, in his head, waiting to call the armor, to pick up his swords, waiting to blaze forth-

"Stop!" He screamed, "Just shut up! I don't want that! I don't want it!" He didn't want to destroy things. That's all the armor would do. It would destroy! Like he had destroyed that camp of poachers. Burned them all away to nothing, so that there weren't even any bones to bury, and the traces of their campsite were gone entirely…

He didn't take pleasure in killing or destroying things. He certainly didn't seek it out! That just wasn't who he was. That wasn't who he had been trained and taught to be. That wasn't who he _wanted_ to be. He felt tears course down his cheeks and he wished he could just make the voice in his mind screaming to call the armor and just slash and _burn_ to stop, to quiet. He wouldn't don the armor. Never again, if this is what it wanted. If it was twisting him into something else, to suit its own purposes. People's lives had been at stake before, but maybe now, now that Arago was gone, they could get over it. Put the armors away and forget it all happened… or maybe someone else could step forward and take his place. He hadn't wanted this. Or if he had – burn, blaze, _live_ – he didn't want it anymore. Maybe he was a coward and a weakling for that, but he didn't care. He wouldn't become a monster for this. Whatever it was.

"-o! Ryo! Buddy, you there?"

He opened his eyes to look into bright blue eyes on a concerned face.

"Damn, Ryo, what happened? What's wrong? It looked like you were in pain!"

"Uh…"

"So he's finally out of it?" Shu asked from nearby. Ryo turned his head and spotted the heavyset, blue-haired youth standing nearby with his arms crossed. "Jeez, you had us worried. Scared the living daylights out of Shin!"

"Oh, like you weren't startled!"

"Of course I wasn't!"

Shin snorted. He was standing on the opposite wall from Ryo's bed, his hands in his pockets. "You jump at shadows and want to ignore the fact that you were ready to put on your armor and run around trying to kill anything that moved when you heard that scream, just like the rest of us!"

Seiji appeared at Ryo's elbow and handed down a glass of water to him, saying nothing as Ryo took it and murmured his thanks, gulping it down before he knocked _that _one over too. Only after he set the glass on the nightstand did Seiji ask, quietly, "So what happened there, Ryo? Are you still hurting?"

"I…" He looked away from Seiji. Seiji had this ability to just stare straight through you, as if he could see everything about you. While that was great for tracking or sensing enemies, it was… embarrassing to look at him just now. Seiji would see what was there. What evil was there in his spirit. Because that's what the voice was. What the desire to burn was… or it had to be. A hungry evil waiting to devour everything, just like Arago…

"You know," Seiji said, intruding on Ryo's thoughts, "We're all still getting over everything that happened in that battle. Fighting all the demons, the Demon Mashou. Being… _devoured_ by Arago. And then that… that strange white armor. And then Arago was gone! And we're all still alive to see the city back to normal, and life seems to be returning to normal. It's a lot to take in." He grinned, "Now the hard part is figuring out what it all means. Which, I can promise you, has been a lot harder than an endless target practice session!"

He was trying to cheer Ryo up. And it worked, partially. He felt the others agree with Seiji. They were all still reeling from the battle, not just Ryo. It might not be for the same reasons, but they all felt it. He looked around at them, and he could feel their tension, as well. He had screamed, and they were all startled by it. Heck, if he'd been hibernating or comatose or whatever he'd been, and then screamed? In their shoes, he'd be really worried too, and on top of everything else…

And then Ryo realized that the nightmares were fading. The hunger was fading. Although he could still feel his friends' spirits strongly, especially now that they were standing nearby, it was no longer with a desire to devour. It was a warmth akin to how he first felt with his armor crystal. A comforting warmth. A bond. Whatever bound them together was protecting him. Keeping the nightmares at bay.

At least temporarily. He could feel the murky thoughts there, waiting at the back of his mind. But with his friends around him, he could push them back, at least briefly. Try and get things out and understand, while he wasn't a monster.

"So you don't have anything on what it was?" He asked. They'd had two weeks, after all. Well, Seiji had almost that. The others had close.

"A little," Touma said. "I was actually looking over some stuff I found today, including a reference to a 'Shiroi Kikotei'. A great white armor with immense power called forth by great warriors in ages past. It was said to protect people from demons. Some of the symbols I've found on the scrolls people have downloaded match those found on our armors, and the pictures drawn are sort of similar to what I can remember it looking like. It matches up to some references that sound a lot like Kaos. Beyond that, though… what capabilities it had, how it was created, where it came from… there's nothing, yet."

"We kind of thought," Shin ventured, "That you might be able to tell us something about that, Ryo. You wore it, after all."

"More like the thing wore _me_," Ryo replied, dryly. Seiji's gaze narrowed at that. "I just… I can remember talking to Kaos in… inside Arago. And then feeling you all there, and then… and then there was this burst of white light and fire-fire everywhere. And I didn't even know what I was doing when I attacked Arago. It was like my body was moving on its own. And it…" His hand, resting on his knee, tightened its hold on the blanket, "It was-it was agonizing. It was like drowning in the volcano again, except this time it hurt. Like looking into the sun and not being able to look away, or jumping onto a stove or-or I don't know…" He let go of the blanket and looked at his palm. "But it also felt incredible. Like I knew that I had this endless amount of power, just waiting to be used. Like when I use my normal armor, and it…" He couldn't describe to others in words the way it felt to burn, to _blaze_. It was something felt with the mind and the heart, something experienced, not explained. "I felt like I could do anything. I don't know why I thought that, but I did. And I don't know where the armor came from, or what it was."

The others had listened intently, and a few moments passed after he went silent while they ingested his words.

"I have to wonder," Touma said, "We were all knocked out, and I thought that was just from, well, _everything_, and maybe it was. Dying, not dying, whatever happened to us. We used a lot of energy during that battle, and all the battles before. Our bodies needed a break. But none of us really outdid each other, from what I can recall. I have to wonder… maybe, Ryo, you were especially done up because you actually _wore_ the armor. You had to bear it, Ryo. Who knows what it drained from you? And if that's true, I wonder if the rest of us were drained because we shared our power to create it."

"Hold on a minute, here," Shu commented, "You think _we_ created that?"

"I remember sharing my power with you guys," Seiji replied. "I remember that, from what little I remember of that battle. The energy drain… it had to come from somewhere. If we had to power something with the magnitude that Ryo is describing… it's possible, I think. It's just possible."

"We shared power to create something…" Shin said, "It's such a strange thing. I never thought we could do that."

"Well, we didn't know the armors were connected like that before," Seiji commented. "They were originally part of Arago, and they even reconnected when we-when he swallowed us. We might not have been able to figure it out on our own, but at least then we managed it."

"It was Kaos," Ryo said, "He came and guided us somehow."

"He's still saving us," Shu shook his head. "And we never get to thank him for it."

"I wonder if that's really it for him," Touma said, "There's that business with the bridge, and Arago. For a dead guy, he sure gets around."

"Which brings us back to the question of what happened when Arago erm, devoured us," Seiji said. "Did we die? Did we just go to sleep? Did we, I don't know… cease to exist for a brief moment and then get reformed? Did we merge with the demon?"

"You can't be serious," Shin said, "Merge with that-that creature? I don't recall, I mean…" He blanched.

"There was a moment… that time, I…" Touma frowned. "I remember darkness and… and pain. And—" he shuddered.

"I guess I'd forgotten," Shu said, quietly. "It was awful, whatever it was."

"We all wanted to forget, I think," Seiji said. "I tried not to think about it at first. I thought it was only me. I felt alone in there, maybe I was going mad… Until the bond, and then the… the Shiroi Kikotei, if that's what it was, appeared."

"Wait," Touma said, "I have an idea. If he absorbed our armors to gain their characteristics back into his original armor… and that involved absorbing us along with them… And we have no explanation for the creation of the Shiroi Kikotei… So I have to wonder… is the reverse possible as well?"

"What do you mean?" Seiji asked.

"Well, our armors formed Arago's armor, which was big and all and we all know how powerful it is. Or is supposed to be, anyway. But then we combined our powers and Ryo managed to escape and formed the Shiroi Kikotei. Maybe we did the same thing Arago was trying to do in reverse…"

"You mean stole some of his power back and used that to form the Kikotei?" Shin asked. "But that doesn't make sense. Why would using his own power against him destroy Arago? It shouldn't have hurt him. It would be like throwing a brick at a skyscraper."

"Well," Touma began, "Think about it for a bit. It seems like it was a group effort to a) combine all of our powers and b) push Ryo out there. We know for a fact that he didn't have Ryo's power at that point. Since our powers were all involved in making the Kikotei, he didn't have our powers either. We were either inbetween or… maybe just helping form mass, I don't know. Our powers weren't there. We can all sense where our armors are, what our powers are doing. We all knew. So Ryo had our five powers, plus whatever Kaos gave him…"

"Versus Arago's leftover energy," Shu interrupted, "And don't forget the four Demon Mashou. I don't like five and a half versus four and a half odds. We didn't beat Arago by a single number. We owned him!"

"You're forgetting, though," Seiji commented, "He was still reforming himself. Putting his armor back together, building his power… That armor of his has been in pieces for a thousand years. He didn't just put it back together and run off and start conquering the world. He was struggling. And not just because he was trying to become 'one' or whatever, but because we were all fighting him. Or… at least Ryo was."

They all looked at their black-haired friend. Notably, he hadn't been partaking in the conversation. He was looking down at the armor crystal, which he was holding in his hand again. He looked up at them, surprised to see them all staring at him. Then he looked back down. "Well… I don't really think, I mean… I ended up somewhere when he absorbed me, I know that much. It wasn't a great place… very dark and… a voice kept telling me to go to sleep. Kaos was the one who kept me awake and aware. It certainly wasn't any work on my part."

"I wonder…" Seiji murmured. "At any rate, with those odds: lacking in numbers, focus, and still reforming, with great weakness, and he even had to contend with Shutendoji, who could _not _have been happy to become absorbed, we could easily beat him."

"So the Shiroi Kikotei isn't as powerful as we think it is," Touma said. "If this is all true, then if Arago HAD been at full strength… we'd have been toast."

"If this is all true," Shin commented, "And he was at full power, we couldn't have formed the Shiroi Kikotei in the first place. We would have still been absorbed."

"I'm just wondering," Shu said, "Why did it pick Ryo, of all of us?"

Ryo clenched his hand around the crystal.

"I mean, no offense man, but we're equal in power level. Why pick you?"

"But then, why not him?" Seiji replied. "For one thing, he was the last absorbed. Arago would have had a tenuous grip on him, in terms of connection with all our armors. He would have been the easiest to remove from Arago's web and stick outside once our powers combined. He was also the most awake of us, since he was absorbed last. I don't know about you all, but I was pretty darn sleepy when I was in there. Barely conscious of what was going on when I felt the bond start to kick in. It felt like-like being tied to a chair and being forced to watch some awful movie. I couldn't move and didn't even feel like I wanted to move, which was weirder still. If Ryo wasn't like that, he'd have had a better chance."

"Those are good points, Seiji," Touma replied. "You too, Shu. And I think it's worth checking into. If I can find more tales on this Shiroi Kikotei, because I promise you, I don't mean to stop looking, I might be able to find out more about the choosing process. Is it random? For instance, the next time we summon it, assuming we could and wanted to and needed to, could it go to any one of us? Or will it go back to Ryo, as the designated bearer for this armor bearer generation? Or is there something special about the Wildfire Armor that makes the bearer of that armor the designated bearer? We do need to look up more on our armors, after all. Learning about their histories and any special capabilities would be valuable."

"Woah, woah, woah," Shin stepped forward, waving his arms, "That's all well and good, but resummon that armor? Are you crazy? We did that the first time in the demon realm, when there was no one to take the backlash, and we all agree that it nearly killed the lot of us, and only Ryo was wearing the damn thing! Look what it did to him for that short amount of time! What if, the next time we try, we summon it here? Even ignoring the potential damage a weapon like that could have on anyone nearby or the environment around us, what if this time we kill Ryo, or all of us? Who will need Arago to start throwing down Youji when we can just go destroying the planet and ourselves for him?"

"I'm not saying we should _try_ for it," Touma replied. "I'm just saying that it's worth investigation. We need to figure out what we're meant to do with these armors. Arago-"

"Was our enemy, and now he's gone," Shu finished. "Our job is done, as far as I'm concerned."

"I don't know about you," Seiji replied with a lowered eyebrow and a sharp voice, "but I don't remember anyone telling me when I received my armor that my job was to defeat Arago. I was just told to bear it responsibly, and with honor, and to protect this world. Besides, we don't know if Arago is really gone, or if all his cronies are gone, too."

"So who do you want us to go against next, Seiji?" Shu snorted, "I don't see any demon lords falling out of the sky. Should we go into the city and start arresting common criminals? Car thieves? Traffic violators? That's a great idea! I can just imagine stopping some thief running out of a convenience store in full samurai armor and giving the guy a heart attack. Does self-defense and the public good cover that?"

"I think we should see what the future brings, and not be so hasty and jump to conclusions," Seiji replied, quietly.

"We've waited two weeks. Heck, we've been fighting this thing for some time now! I think it's time we went back to our own lives!"

"Turning tail, Shu, now that the battle's over?"

Shu flushed and snarled, "What did you just say to me?"

"I'm saying that maybe Ryo was picked to wear the Shiroi Kikotei and finish the fight because he actually wanted to fight back," Seiji hissed back, "Unlike certain people I know."

"Why you—!"

"Guys, come on."

"Really, you guys are going to do this now?"

"Would you all please leave!" Ryo's voice broke over theirs, "I'm… I'm really tired still." They all stopped and looked down at him.

"Uh yeah, sure Ryo," Touma said, gesturing for the others to go. "Sorry. We'll finish this tomorrow, okay?"

"Thanks."

They all murmured apologies to him as they stepped out, Shu still glaring and refusing to look at Seiji, who was last out, and who clicked the light off before he shut the door. Ryo sat in the dark, staring at the glowing red crystal.

_"Maybe Ryo was picked to wear the Shiroi Kikotei and finish the fight because he actually wanted to fight back!"_

_"Why did it pick Ryo?"_

_"Maybe we did the same thing Arago was trying to do in reverse…"_

_"You mean stole some of his power back and used that to form the Kikotei?"_

_I'm a monster. _That was the only answer. Out of all of them, he was the monster. That's why he was chosen. That was the only reason. _Arago could control his army using his demonic powers… maybe I could control the Kikotei because I… because I had that same demonic skill… maybe I was just as evil Or maybe because I had some of Arago stuck in my head, like when I was in that… that other place, where he was trying to smother me, along with the others. The armor is so strong, and it was a _part _of him once. I just don't get it…_

He put his head in his hands, the crystal falling back into his lap as he did so.

* * *

A/N: In case anyone was confused, Naste and Jun are not in this story. Sorry.


	2. Chapter 2: Sarenbo Arrives

**Chapter 2**

Up in the sky, where clouds of this world and other worlds collided, a tall red gate materialized. Its doors were initially shut, and they slowly opened inward, allowing a golden light to suffuse the air. Out of the depths of the gate emerged a tall armored figure. He stepped out onto the air as if onto solid ground, and when he was a short ways away from the gate, the doors shut behind him and the gate vanished from sight.

Completely covered in armor from head to foot, he resembled a diver with a squished white-metal mask covering his face. The rest of his armor was black and blue, and he carried a tall pikestaff in his right hand.

He looked down below his feet, waving his spear to move aside the clouds blocking his view. A space opened up and he looked down onto a large human city – Tokyo was the name he'd been told. He could feel the movement of so many human souls as if they were right before his eyes. While a part of him salivated to be unleashed out in the human realms after so long, the wiser part of him reined in his desire and turned to the task at hand.

He probed around the city, sending out all his senses as far as he could. Arago had said that he would able to sense the Troopers by his own aura saturated in the armors they wore. With luck, they would still be together, and so would provide an easier target to spot, like a bulls eye.

He did not find them in the city, and could not suppress a sigh of disappointment. If they had been there, it would have been an excuse to go down and wreak some havoc, and gather what souls he could find before returning to the Nether Realms with his prizes.

As he was considering which direction to take first, he felt a slight pull, and dove down to a specific edge of the city. It was not very strong, but he could sense two human souls _laced_ with Arago's power, retreating from the city.

He smiled beneath his helmet, knowing that Luck was favoring him this day.

* * *

"Oh that was nice!" Shin sighed, leaning back in his seat while Seiji drove them back to the house. "Even if it was short, and just a supply trip, it was nice to get out of that place for a bit!"

"You've spent more time talking about the house than you have enjoying the errand run," Seiji replied. "On the way up you kept commenting about how nice it was to get away, and in town you nearly shouted about it, and now here—"

"Well I'm trying to get all my thoughts out while I can!" Shin interrupted. "Contrary to how some people act, I don't keep everything in and sulk when I have the opportunity to vent. It's like being drowned in that place. Touma's the only one with anything to do. Shu does nothing but exercise and glare at you if you try to interrupt him for anything but food, and Ryo, well… he's still recovering."

They were both silent for a moment, contemplating _that_ touchy problem.

"Well," Seiji replied, "The problem now is that we have to get used to being around each other without a life or death scenario hanging over our heads. It's easy to band together under the heat of battle, especially when you've got nowhere else to run. Now we have to learn about each other in peacetime. We have to get used to who we are as _people_, not soldiers."

"And with much more of this, we'll find out that we're even less like soldiers than we appear. We'll all start _leaving_."

Seiji smiled sadly, "Well maybe—" He slammed on the brakes, making Shin gasp as the seatbelts squished tight against his body while the inertia of the car pushed them forward. They sped to a halt – mostly alone on the road, thankfully, although an annoyed fellow driver swerved around them about thirty seconds later, opened a window, and shouted back insults as they went off into the distance. The smell of burnt rubber filled the air and Shin glanced in surprise over at his companion as Seiji quickly unlocked his seat belt, opened the door, and jumped out of the car. Shin mimicked the action and ran over to stand by him, asking "Seiji, what-?"

"I felt them. Youja. Someone is watching us."

"What?" Shin looked around, and then cursed. He should know by now that looking wasn't always the best option. He shut his eyes and listened. It was harder to sense when he was out and away from water, and he definitely wasn't even close to being Seiji's equal – no one on the team was – but he could still at least somewhat sense Youja out there. For a moment, there was nothing, and then he felt a slight presence. He opened his eyes and frowned, "So we didn't get them all after all. Should we suit up?"

"Yeah. Whoever they are, they can't be up to any good. And if they're after us, we want to give them a decent fight, eh?" He reached into his pocket and crushed his armor crystal in his hand, as Shin did the same. A brief flash of green and blue light covered the area, and then they were both in their base armors.

"Let's get away from the car," Seiji said. "We don't need to go blowing up our own car, or catching any other drivers on the road." He leapt up onto the cliff forming the wall for the road with Shin following behind, both of them searching for their new enemy. Once they were at the top of the cliff, they moved further away from the road and then crouched down in a gathering of bushes, waiting.

To Seiji, the demonic presence had been like a crackling in his mind, marring the sky and energies of the earth in the air, and bumping painfully against his senses as he moved. Now the crackling grew, and he narrowed his eyes instinctively, focusing on the energy. Where was it coming from?

* * *

Saranbo looked around curiously. He had been able to feel the presence of two armors before, but now he barely sensed one. Odd. He materialized fully for a better look around the area, inspecting the odd contraption they had been near moments before. He saw no one there.

* * *

When Seiji spotted him, he grabbed Shin's shoulder and pointed. Shin looked and saw a tall, large, frog-like ornately armored figure. Its aura saturated the air. Even as Shin prepared for the fight, he felt a sadness fill his mind. They'd been right – it wasn't over for them. He glanced briefly at Seiji, and realized that the other youth shared the sentiment, despite what he'd said the previous evening. Seiji's gaze hardened, though, and Shin felt his own resolve firm up as well. Mourning for a brief respite could wait. Now was the time to fight.

"Come out little senshi! Come out and fight!"

Shin and Seiji focused, murmuring the summons for their armors. The air around them glowed briefly as the energy gathered around them, then formed into the Halo and Torrent armors. Shin signaled that Seiji stay down, and the other senshi nodded and remained crouched as Shin crawled over the slope away from him. When he was a ways away, he stood up and called out, "Who are you? What do you want?"

Saranbo turned to look at the blue senshi and raised his spear in a sort of mocking salute. "Ahh… so there you are. Where is your friend hiding?"

Shin kept his expression focused and annoyed. This enemy had either been spying on them or could sense them. He didn't look like the typical Youja and certainly wasn't any of the Mashou, unless they'd had a drastic armor change.

Seiji frowned at the stranger. He felt kind of like a Youja. He was not quite like the Mashou, either, who showed up in his mind like different scents. This newcomer's aura was a far more oppressive darkness than the dynasty soldiers and more on par with the Mashou. Even stronger, perhaps. It wasn't as bad as Arago, but Seiji still didn't like it. He kept his hand on his sword hilt, ready to leap out and attack to help Shin at any moment.

"Who are you?" Shin repeated. "What do you want?"

The stranger chuckled, "Quite a bit of bluster, huh? I am Sarenbo, little senshi. And I want the strange white armor that struck down Arago."

_What is it with these people and armors? _Seiji thought. _Nothing but power-hungry monsters. Don't they have anything better to do?_

"It's not here," Shin replied. "And I wouldn't give it to you even if it was.

Sarenbo studied him for a moment. "Do you honestly think me a fool? To accept the word of a mere human? You senshi have the armor, and I want it!" Sarenbo turned his head and looked around, "Or perhaps your friend has it."

Seiji leapt into the air seconds before the area where he'd been was struck by a wall of boiling water. Shin sent out a strong torrent attack, but it struck only air as Sarenbo dodged. Seiji unsheathed his sword and struck out at the demon, who moved faster than Seiji had and struck the senshi in the back with his spear.

Seiji cried out and fell to the ground. The blow had winded him.

Shin aimed and fired a torrent of freezing water at Sarenbo. Instead of dodging, the demon sent another attack back at Shin through his own water torrent. Shin cried out as he felt his hands and chest begin to burn. He leapt away, barely holding onto his weapon.

Seiji got up and moved to attack again, but Sarenbo, ending his own attack, turned and threw a bolt of energy at him, catching him in the air. The electricity made Seiji cry out in pain.

"Seiji!" Shin tried to stand, still recovering from Sarenbo's attack. Before he could even try to form another attack, Sarenbo threw the same energy-based attack at him, and Shin felt only pain.

Sarenbo felt the auras that were no longer mostly hidden from him shine once more in his mind. Neither was strong enough to be the white armor, even combined. "Hmph. Waste of my time." He vanished.

Without his presence, the attack collapsed and Seiji and Shin fell, free, to the ground. Their armors deactivated, and they lay for a bit, panting in pain.

Seiji finally got up and dragged himself to Shin, who was sweating profusely and had a pink face. "Shin, are you okay? Can you move?"

Shin turned his head to look at Seiji blearily, then pushed himself up a little. "Yeah, but I feel like I was used as someone's punching bag."

"We need to regroup with the others so we can take this guy down if he comes back. He found us – he might have already found them."

"Or he could be watching us. He could have found us by dumb luck, and now he's just waiting for us to lead him to the others."

"Dammit."

"Yeah."

Seiji deactivated his sub-yoroi and pulled out his cellphone, dialing the house. While he waited for a pick-up, he said, quietly, to Shin, who sat up beside the other senshi, "Don't mention… black hair, okay?"

Wondering if the attack had fried more than his energy stores, Shin asked, hesitantly, "What? Why would I? What's the significance of-?"

"He doesn't know which of us has the armor. If we don't tell him – it can stay that way."

"Oh, okay."

"Hello?" Shu's voice made Seiji smile – they weren't being attacked at the house. Yet, at least. He hoped demons couldn't track cell phone signals.

"Shu, get Touma! We've been attacked by another demon and we need to form a plan of attack. He wants the white armor."

"What? But-!"

"Shu, we might not have a lot of time! We don't know where he went! He just beat us up and vanished!"

The line went silent for a moment, and then Seiji heard Shu running along the wooden floors in the house. "Touma! The guys got attacked!"

"What?"

"Here!" There was a lot of clattering as the phone changed hands, was dropped, picked up, and Touma stuck it on speaker, "Hello?"

"Touma! Can you go somewhere where it's just you and Shu?"

"Why?"

"Just do it."

Silence for a moment, and then there was the sound of more footsteps, the sound of an opening and then closing door, and then Touma said, "All right, what happened?"

"Shin and I were attacked by a demon named Sarenbo. He just showed up out of nowhere and took us out like we were nothing. He said he wanted the white armor."

"That's not the name of any of the demons we know the names of. Could he be another of Arago's soldiers?"

"I don't know. He just attacked us and trapped us in this electric orb thing after he spoke about the armor. I think he knows that Shin and I don't have it, and now he's waiting to find you." Seiji looked around as he spoke, reaching out with his senses for a hint of Sarenbo. He couldn't… there! "He's still here, waiting for us to lead him back to you."

"We'll come find you! We can take him out together!"

"You don't understand! He completely wiped the floor with us! He was faster than me and stronger than Shin. If he takes you out and realizes that you don't have it…"

"…He'll go after Ryo."

"Yeah."

Touma was silent for several moments, and then he said, "Then we'll just make sure we finish him off. The four of us should be strong enough to handle one enemy."

"I'm not so sure about that. We're all still recovering. We got past Arago out of sheer luck most of the time, and now we're fighting even worse enemies than the Mashou ever were. And we can't have all of us around because someone is still decommissioned."

"Well, what other choice do we have? Wait for him to kill you in order to drag us out? Wait for him to find us anyway? Even if we wanted to, we can't just hand him the white armor. I still have no idea how we summoned it in the first place, and that's assuming it can be done outside of the special circumstances presented during our battle with Arago. And even if we knew how, we can't just give a demon a weapon of that magnitude! You saw what they did when Arago didn't even know we had something like that. If they had a weapon like that, our world is gone."

"And then there's the fact that it would probably kill Ryo in the state he's in if he summoned it again. Or any of us if one of us got to wear it this time around, especially if it picks you or Shin, from the sound of things."

"I know …" Seiji looked at Shin, who returned his hard gaze. "All right. Meet us here. Just you two, though. There's no need to wake up people who could really use a rest and don't need an excuse to get themselves killed. We can take care of this." He looked at Shin, "We have to."

"All right, where are you?"

* * *

"_Ryo, you have lessons to take care of today. Are you going to sleep through it all?"_

When he opened his eyes to stare at the white ceiling of the now-very-familiar room, Ryo wondered exactly why his mother had appeared to him. It was an odd break from the storm of memories and emotions from the battle with Arago that had been plaguing him.

He sat up and looked around in the afternoon light. Byakuen growled and he reached out a hand to pet the tiger.

Then his stomach growled, and he let out an "Ahh! I guess I should go get some food." He got up and walked slowly to the door with Byakuen's help, the tiger acting as a mock crutch/bannister for him to hold.

"Hello?" No reply came to his call, so he listened for several moments. He couldn't hear anyone. He turned and walked down the stairs. He wasn't familiar with the place, so he might as well start exploring, at least a little. There wasn't much else to explore on the second floor, anyway, and the kitchen probably wasn't up there. Once downstairs, he found a living room, dining room, and kitchen, all empty. "Guys?" He called, moving to the front door and opening it to look out. He couldn't see anyone out there, either.

He shut his eyes and searched for them with his mind. He could feel Byakuen beside him, but he couldn't sense any of the others. "I guess they're all out…" He didn't like this. He didn't really like the idea of being babysat, but he didn't think it was custom to leave an invalid on their own. Plus, where would they go? They weren't exactly fit for nights on the town yet.

He shook his head and looked down at Byakuen, "It's doesn't really matters, does it? I'm in no shape to drive a car or run around looking for them. And even if I could, then what? I'd probably just fall over and they'd have to carry me back. A great deal of use I'd be."

So instead he moved into the kitchen and started trying to find something to eat.

He couldn't ignore the distant buzzing in his mind, like he should remember something. But it didn't feel like a demon or some other threat, so he put it aside for the moment.

* * *

Touma and Shu, both wearing their sub-yoroi, raced towards where Seiji and Shin said they were waiting.

"You know we're probably walking into a trap," Touma commented as he watched the road ahead.

"Yeah, well, then at least we'll have someone to fight," Shu replied, "I was getting antsy. Besides, who can handle the four of us, together?"

"The Mashou and Arago seemed to have an easy time of it," Touma commented drily, "or just a bunch of Youja."

"Well… that was before! We're a lot stronger now and we… uh…"

"I guess you're right," Touma replied, "We're at least a little stronger than we were. It's hard to tell with the recovery and all, but… I do feel a little stronger than I used to. It's like-like I'm more in tune with my armor or something."

Shu blinked in surprise and commented, "Yeah… now that you mention it." He looked out the window to watch the scenery pass by, "It's not that so much as… I can feel the earth beneath is. The layers, the weight, the strength. Like it's a part of my body. Things weren't like that before."

"It could be related to the white armor, or what happened with Arago… we'll have to talk about it later, and see how much our powers have changed. Right now, we need to focus on defeating this new demon. Hope he doesn't just pop out of thin air any time soon. I'd hate to be running to rescue friends and then die in a car crash."

"Which means that's probably exactly what he'll do," Shu replied, "Hopefully he's looking in another direction than the one we're coming from." He grinned and then gasped, "Touma, get off the road!"

"What?"

"Now!"

Touma turned the car onto the dirt beside the road, jarring the pair of them and making quite a large crashing and crunching sound.

"Dam-!" Touma gagged as Shu grabbed him and pushed him down against the door. The glass exploded over them and Touma pressed down on the brakes. There was a loud "skid" sound and they came to a stop without crashing into anything.

Shu sat back up, opened his door, and jumped out, summoning his armor. Touma rubbed his side and looked around. They were some ways from the road by now, and when he looked back at where they had been before, he saw a rising pillar of smoke. He stared, shocked, before fumbling with the door and letting himself out of the car. He paused for a moment to look around again, then grabbed his phone and called Seiji.

"He's here!" Shu called out. "He spotted us! Come out you asshole!"

Sarenbo materialized and Touma, staring in shock, fumbled with his first response to Seiji's question, then shouted, "He's here! We're a little ways up the road from you! Gotta go!" He stuffed his phone in his pocket and summoned his armor.

"Ahh, more senshi. Do _you_ have the white armor?"

Shu raised his sansetsukon and growled, "Maybe we do, maybe we don't. You're not getting it in any case!"

"Hmph. Humans are too much trouble." Sarenbo threw a bolt of electricity at Shu, who deflected it back at the demon.

"Ahh, you're a little stronger than your friends. That's nice."

"Haah!" Shu jumped and swung his weapon at Sarenbo, who dodged aside.

And so Sarenbo was hit in the side by one of Touma's arrows and knocked flying.

"Darn it, Touma, I had him!"

Touma nocked another arrow and replied, "Sure you did."

Sarenbo pushed himself out of the indent he'd made in a nearby cliff, aimed, and fired another bolt of electricity back in the direction of the two senshi. Shu, already running for him, dodged aside. Touma had leapt into the sky earlier as the demon moved, aiming down at Sarenbo. He let loose, only this time Sarenbo was ready. He dodged the shot, aimed and fired off a column of water at Touma, who simply moved aside, grinning, "You're kidding! Trying to get me while I'm up here!" He fired another shot, and Sarenbo had to jump away.

And then Shu landed a blow straight over the demon's head, knocking him into the ground.

"I don't get it," Shu commented, swinging his spear in preparation for a final attack, "This guy took out Seiji and Shin? What, were they asleep?"

"Shu, don't let your guard down!"

"I know, I know! One dead demon coming up." He started to run towards where Sarenbo had fallen, and so wasn't ready when a ball of lightning fell from the sky and surrounded him completely. He cried out.

"Shu!" Touma looked up and dodged another blast from Sarenbo, who was standing much farther up in the air. Touma aimed and fired up at him, but Sarenbo simply fired back a wave of boiling water, which went through Touma's attack and surrounded the senshi in another orb of energy. Touma cried out.

* * *

The ceramic cup of water Ryo had been lifting to his lips fell out of his hand and shattered on the floor, splattering his feet with hot tea. He put his arm out and leaned against the wall to try and deal with the wave of dizziness. "Ugh… the guys… where are… they're in pain. Why... why can I…?"

Byakuen growled and nuzzled his left leg, making Ryo look down at him. "Yeah, I… I don't know Byakuen. I…" He looked to the door. "I've gotta find them. I just… I have to help." The thought crossed his mind that he didn't even have any shoes on and he'd probably just kill himself or someone else trying to be brave.

The dizziness colored with the auras of the others went through his head again and he groaned. "Gotta go. Gotta find them…" He moved towards the door.

Byakuen growled again and pushed him away.

Ryo looked down at the tiger and frowned, "Byakuen, I _have_ to go. The guys, they… they're hurt. I don't get how I know, I don't know… I don't know that I can help… the armor might-it might take over again, and I don't know what it'll do, then. But I have to go. I have to." _Do I just want to go because there might be a fight? Is that what I want?_

But he wasn't sensing an enemy. He was just feeling the others. He could feel their pain, and it made him queasy and angry. Angry at whatever was hurting them. Maybe that was just another excuse for the monster in his chest– nobility in the face of greed. But it was the answer he needed: an excuse to leave.

"I have to go. I don't know what's out there. I don't know what I have to do, but I need to go help them.

Byakuen made a mewling sound, but Ryo pushed his way past and out the door.

* * *

"Hmph, you don't have the armor either." Sarenbo snorted. "Hmm… I've fought four of you now. There should be five. I wonder where the fifth is hiding."

"Dammit we're too late!" Seiji ran forward, wincing as he moved. Shin followed close behind, moving even slower than him.

"So you survived," Sarenbo aimed down at them, "Perhaps now you'll tell me where the white armor is."

"Never!" Seiji aimed and slashed down with a lightning bolt cut at Sarenbo. Unfortunately, the demon dodged and trapped Seiji, who could not move fast enough, in another ball of electrical energy, which slammed backward into Shin, trapping the other senshi, as well.

"This could have gone easier on you all if you had given me what I wanted. Tell me where the white armor is!"

None of them replied. They kept their mouths shut and tried to escape, struggling and trying to summon an attack to destroy the traps. Nothing worked, and they simply writhed in agony.

"Tell me where the last member of your little party is! I wager the armor is with him. If you do so, I will kill you all quickly. If not…" He increased the voltage, making them all cry out louder.

* * *

Ryo clenched Byakuen's fur as the cat ran down the road. He had his sub-yoroi on. He was very concerned that if he put on the wildfire armor, it would significantly decrease the time he would have to be valuable. Sure, he needed to be ready, but he didn't need to use up his energy just sitting on Byakuen's back. Even this was hard, what with the dizziness increasing as they got closer to the others. His heart was racing as he contemplated going back into another battle.

None of the others were home. He didn't have any number to call. He hadn't found any notes. There were no signs of an attack at the building or along the way.

_A demon should create more destruction… and if one of the others used one of their armor's attacks, there should be more destruction. That's all the armors are, really. Weapons of chaos._

He caught sight of the skid marks on the road and looked around for a car. Sure, it might be something completely unrelated, but with the luck the YST had…

_It's not like I could even recognize a car I've never seen if I saw it. I guess if they're just nearby… They feel close._

"Byakuen! Follow the skid marks!"

The tiger growled and turned after them, heading to a car parked a ways away in the grass. The driver and front passenger doors were open. Byakuen paused so Ryo could hop off and take a better look into the car to make sure there was no one there. It was empty.

"They feel…" He turned away from the car and looked off a ways. "That way. Byakuen!" He hopped back on the tiger's back and they raced in that direction.

* * *

"You know that you're all going to die if you keep this up," Sarenbo said, looking over the senshi floating in the air, crying out in pain. "I'm amazed you've all even managed to remain conscious for so long. The armors are truly items of incredible value." He looked over them again, measuring. Even now, all together, they weren't enough to equal the power that had defeated Arago. There was something missing… "Tell me where the armor is, you fools, or die by inches!"

"Stop!"

Sarenbo turned to look down at Ryo, who now wore the Wildfire armor, having summoned it as they neared the scene.

Ryo took in the sight of the others trapped in the energy orbs. Now that he was so close, the dizziness was slightly blurring his vision every few seconds. He tried to stand as still as possible to maintain some appearance of strength. And he hoped he didn't collapse any time soon. The sight of the demon floating in the air before the others… some sort of black and white frog armor monster…

He felt his blood grow hot and unsheathed his swords.

_Fight!_

_Huh?_

That voice in his mind, where did it come from?

_Fight!_

The urgency was eerie and Ryo did _not_ like having a creepy voice in his head encouraging him to fight and kill something. He tried to ignore it and said, "Let them go!"

"So, the last of the senshi!" Sarenbo replied, moving closer. "You must have the white armor. Give it to me!"

Ryo blinked in surprise. "What?"

Sarenbo vanished and reappeared a bare foot in front of the senshi and continued, "I grow weary of this game. Where is the white armor?"

"I-I don't-!" He tried to jump out the way, but Sarenbo slashed down at him with a powerful blow Ryo barely managed to block, and that still knocked the senshi back into the dirt.

"Your friends are dying, senshi," Sarenbo raised his spear to point at Ryo, "as you will die. Give me the white armor if you value any of your lives!"

Ryo looked over at the others. He didn't know how long they'd been trapped like that or how much more they could take.

_Fight!_

Now that, he didn't have to argue with! He leapt back and shot out a cut of flame at the demon, hoping to just kill him and end the spell.

Sarenbo dodged aside and struck back at the senshi with a blast of boiling water, drenching the slow-moving senshi and knocking him into the nearby cliff-face. Ryo cried out and stumbled to his knees. Only then did he start to feel the poison, like Naaza's attacks. It burned through his armor and pushed the dizziness back through whatever force was pushing him on to fight. Combining that with his only partially recovered body…

Sarenbo moved closer and laughed. "Is that all? You didn't even last a fraction of the time the others did. How pathetic." He pointed his spear down at Ryo's head and continued, "You clearly don't have the armor either. Such a weakling could never have something so powerful. Your aura, too, is far too weak for what I search for. Die!"

Ryo could feel the power build-up in the demon's trident, and urged his body to move. To fight back, but he felt so powerless…

Just as his attack launched at Ryo, a white light exploded before Sarenbo, knocking him back.

"What the-what was that?"

_Fire… _Ryo could feel the flames wrapping around his body, forming the white armor from his battle with Arago. _It's the one from before. The Kikotei armor! It burns!_

For a few moments after the armor's full formation, he simply floated in the air. The smoke and light cleared and Sarenbo was able to get a full look at the senshi standing before him.

"There it is… the armor that defeated Arago." He could feel the heat coming off of it as if he stood beside an enormous brazier. "Such an aura of power…" He raised his spear and pointed at the senshi again, "It must be mine!"

Ryo looked at Sarenbo, seeing the demon not as the strange, powerful creature he had been at first sight, but as a puny nothing, like the Youja.

_He hurt the others and keeps them trapped…_

_Fight!_

_I must destroy him!_

He raised his swords and focused on Sarenbo, crying out "Rage… of… Inferno!" A great lance of red-white flame struck out at Sarenbo, completely incinerating him where he stood before he could even send off another attack. The energy spheres vanished, and the other senshi fell to the ground.

Ryo could feel the burst of fire as it blazed beyond the spot where Sarenbo had died, burning towards the sky and lighting up the entire area.

_Fight!_

_He's gone. There isn't any one else to battle…_ All Ryo could feel were the weak auras of the other senshi. As his mind reached for them, it broke through that strange presence's hold, and he saw them lying on the ground in pain. _My friends! They're hurt!_

Byakuen approached Ryo, who turned to look at the tiger, the flames of his attack dissipating, letting the light dim. The fire was gone. He felt how heavy his limbs were.

"Bya—" He fell forward and lay on the ground, his face in the dirt. The Kikotei armor vanished, and he wore his pajamas again. Burns marked his shoulders and his arms where the poison had gotten to him. He didn't move.

* * *

Hidden by the clouds, Sarenbo watched the dissipation of the attack that had destroyed his shadow. "Extraordinary," He exclaimed. "I truly must make that armor mine!"

* * *

A/N: In case this is a bit confusing, I just want to put this here: I know the original anime was created in the 80s. Due to the fact that every time I looked at certain moments and problems and then a little voice in my head said "Hey! We have cellphones, laptops, social networking, the Internet… all that stuff… Why is this a problem?", a plot bunny was born that said "Hey! What would it be like if the story were taking place now-ish, and not in the 80s?" There's a lot more explanation than that, but, well... The story has been moved up to the present. I'm sure we'll see more on that later.


	3. Chapter 3: A Challenge

Chapter 3

It was some time before Shu was able to move. Every part of his body _hurt_. He sat up slowly and looked around. It was still nighttime, and the area was even more of a power-wrecked mess than it was when Sarenbo caught them. He spotted Touma lying nearby, slowly pushing himself up from the ground. Seiji was sitting with his back to a hill, while his eyes were still shut. Shin lay on his back in the grass nearby, his eyes shut as well.

Shu managed to crawl over to him and shook his shoulder. "Shin? Shin!" Shu knew that he was the worst at sensing the others, but he could certainly tell how weak and dark their auras were when he was this close to them. The sight of Shu's was not comfortable. "Shin!"

The brown-haired senshi finally cracked open his eyes and looked up at him with a grimace, "I hear you, all right? Just... just tired..."

"Hang on, okay? We'll get you out of here." He squeezed Shin's shoulder.

Then something very odd happened.

Shu felt his strength flag briefly, and then most of the pain and weariness faded. He felt more awake. But he was also surprised to see Shin's aura brighten.

Shin's eyes opened fully. "What the-? I feel better all of a sudden..."

Shu pulled his hand away, very confused. "These armors just keep creeping me out more and more."

Shin pushed himself to a sitting position, wincing as he moved. "You can say that again. Did I imagine it, or was Ryo here?"

"He was here," Seiji replied, opening his eyes. "We made the white armor again, and he got Sarenbo." The blonde senshi winced as he tried to move. "I don't know how much that helped. It's such an energy drain."

"Well," Touma replied, "We're not dead. I think that's better than what Sarenbo had planned."

"Where's Ryo now?" Shu asked. "He's not with us, and I doubt he ran back home somehow, even with Byakuen around."

Byakuen had very good ears, and so when he heard his name, he roared.

"Well," Touma said, "Guess we head that way and hope there aren't any _other_ large animals around roaring at us."

They moved very slowly, helping each other as much as they were able. Byakuen roared again, closer and closer as they kept on. They were shocked to see the burned craters on the ground - backlash from the attack Ryo had used. The grass formerly near the road was gone - burned entirely away. Byakuen stood on the road above the spot, watching them. After he saw them, he growled and turned away, moving back. When they managed to climb onto the road, they found Ryo lying face-down on the concrete, with Byakuen seated near him protectively.

Like the others, his armor had deactivated and he wore his normal clothes - the pajamas he'd been sleeping in - which were now wet and covered in dirt from the road. Near him was a melted section of concrete; an odd, large crater in the middle of the street.

"Ryo?" Shin asked as he knelt beside his friend and shook the other boy's shoulder. There was no reply.

"We need to get out of here," Touma said, looking around. "There could easily be emergency vehicles and the curious out here soon enough. They're probably already on their way."

"Hope the cars are still all right," Seiji commented, heading towards his. "I'd hate to have to walk back."

* * *

Shin floated idly along in the lake near the house, his eyes shut, and his arms spread out. The water lapped at him and the sun warmed his skin.

"If you do that for much longer, you're just going to turn into a fish," Shu said, leaning his head on his elbow as he watched Shin.

Shin smiled and opened his eyes, turning his head to look at the other senshi, "Oh, I wouldn't do that. You might eat me!"

"Feh. You'd be too salty!"

"This is a freshwater lake, Shu."

"Well you'd be too something. And I'm happy with store-bought food while it's available, thanks."

"Sit like that too long and you'll freeze that way."

Shu snorted and lay down on the grass, shutting his eyes as well. "Feh. I was still tired anyway."

"I'm amazed you can sleep there. The ground is hard."

"Well I like it. Feels just like a nice bed to me."

"Mud face."

"Seaweed brain."

"Hmph!"

"Hmph!"

Toma glanced down from the balcony where he had his laptop set up, and watched the other two senshi. "Well they seem to be doing better."

Seiji, meditating in a corner with his eyes shut, replied, "That's good. The sooner we improve, the sooner we can deal with this 'Sarenbo'. Found anything more on the Shiroi Kikotei?"

"No. Nothing. I've been going through my family's files on the Tenku armor, trying to find some more information. But it hasn't been helpful."

"My family knew little about the armors, beyond vague stories sent down through the generations."

"Well great. I wish our families were a little more specific about these things_._"

Seiji opened his eyes and watched as Toma threw his hands up and leaned back in his chair, covering his face with his arms. "Sorry Seiji. I'm just tired."

"You can get more sleep, Toma. You probably need it. We all do."

"I'll sleep through another attack at this rate. We need to be ready, but none of us are really strong enough for any decent training sessions, and where would we spar? In the ocean? In the wilderness? Up in the sky? Our powers are impossible to use in a practice arena without wreaking substantial havoc on the nearby area. The last things we need are civilian casualties and attracting the attention of the police or the government."

"Then we practice in the old ways, with our current abilities. We rest, and we hope our enemies do not find us before we are ready for them."

Toma glared at his friend, "How can you be so calm, Seiji? Sarenbo wiped the floor with us!"

"We've overcome every other challenge. We'll survive the next ones, too. We haven't attacked with four of us at a time, yet, let alone five. If someone just as strong as Sarenbo comes along, we attack together, and we can take them down. He couldn't stand the Shiroi Kikotei, could he? That's our trump card."

"A trump card that seems bent on killing us every time we use it, apparently." Toma sat up and stared at his computer screen. "Arago could handle all that power, plus the Demon Mashou, and whatever other power he had before he absorbed us all. He didn't seem to have any setbacks. I'm guessing that's because he's a demon – a being made out of energy. He doesn't have a body that would be strained by the usage of such power. Or it just belonged to him at one point. It was a part of him. I guess it would be like being able to use your legs again after being paralyzed."

Seiji frowned and turned his head, "Should we check on Ryo?"

"Is he awake?"

"Feels like it."

Ryo, unable to hear them talking, sat up in bed and looked around. The blinds were down so the room was a little dark, but he could see cracks of sunlight here and there. He felt Byakuen down on his left again, and the tiger sat up when Ryo stretched.

"Hey boy," he said, patting the cat on the head. "Sorry all I do lately is sleep. Maybe we'll go on a run sometime soon."

Byakuen growled in response.

Ryo still felt tired. He wondered if this was how animals felt before they began hibernating. He wondered if it _hurt _so much. His whole body was sore, and even moving as he did in a wake-up stretch felt like too much. He tried to find a comfortable sitting position, but just ended up lying back down again. The pain faded a bit after that, and he stared up at the ceiling, thinking back to the fight with the strange demon.

He remembered it all. Trying to help, summoning the Shiroi Kikotei, that odd voice… he could recall it now, and still couldn't understand where it came from.

_The armors used to be part of Arago… they might contain some of his essence… that _IS _what helps give them their powers, after all…_

It couldn't be that Arago's cast-off essence was making him fight. That was just _beyond _creepy. And terrifying.

_But what else could it be? There wasn't anyone else but the one demon there, and the guys didn't want me there in the first place._ _They all knew that I was more likely to fall down dead than be of any use. That I survived what happened _anyway_ was sheer luck._ _The demon wanted to capture or kill me, not fight me. Telling an enemy to fight back in such a situation was stupid._

What Ryo truly didn't want to think about was the question of whether it had been a part of his subconscious reacting to the plight of his friends along with the appearance of a new enemy. A desire for vengeance mixed with the desire for another fight… was that why he'd done that?

His thoughts led him back to the previous time he'd woken up, when he'd been desperately repeating that he didn't like fighting. He didn't want battle. He didn't _kill for pleasure_.

But the Shiroi Kikotei had come back when he had been focused on some rather murderous thoughts, his own or not. The Shiroi Kikotei was formed out of a desire to fight; as Arago had been pushing the senshi into all the time he had been fighting them. As he said himself, battle made his powers stronger. Human emotions of hate and bloodlust were like the finest foods to his palate.

_Is this how I become like the Demon Mashou? _He stiffened with the thought. None of the Demon Mashou had possessed the power of the Shiroi Kikotei. They had only possessed individual armor abilities. But they had worn the armors for centuries longer than the five senshi. They had great power of their own, and they had misused it. All but Shutendoji had even gladly joined with Arago in the end, sacrificing their own lives for his mad plans. Ryo did not know how such people came to be. He could only wonder.

_I will not become them! _He shut his eyes, repeating the words in his head, _I am not a Demon Mashou! I am not Arago! I am Rekka no Ryo! I am human! I am a friend to Shu and Shin and Seiji and Toma and Byakuen! I have a family and responsibilities. I am not a Demon Mashou! I am not a murderer…_

He heard the door open and opened his eyes, sitting up with a wince to greet Seiji and Toma, who stepped in with smiles, and the latter with a tray of food. "Hey, it's the crazy sleepyhead with a suicide wish!" Seiji said, "How are you feeling?"

Toma set the tray down on Ryo's lap and sat on an empty space on the bed, while Seiji leaned against a wall with his arms crossed, watching.

"I… I…" Ryo looked down at the food and flexed his fingers, wincing even then. "I have hurts in places I didn't realize could hurt."

"Yeah, we're all getting a sense of that," Seiji commented. "The armors take energy from us when they do what they do, but they seem to do it universally. I suppose this means that if we have to do something really substantial, we won't lose use of our legs or arms. The effect will be spread all over. Small blessings, I suppose…"

Toma snorted.

"So what happened?" Ryo asked, not knowing how to respond to that, and buying time so he could get a better look at his two friends, who were trying to casually hide how beat up they were. "Who was that guy, and how did you get caught like that? Or how did you find him?"

Toma smiled and said, "Well, that's a bit of a long story…"

"We're all in this together," Seiji interrupted. "He shouldn't be kept out of the loop. Besides, it's old news."

Toma sighed and replied, "Fine, whatever. So here's what happened…"

As he explained, Ryo continued to study them. Their auras were faded slightly from normal. Although, oddly, he could see them better than he could before. Their lines were more distinct. He didn't know if that meant they had changed or… were his senses improving?

He'd have to talk to Seiji later.

There were worry lines on their faces and Seiji rubbed his arms rather frequently. Toma kept stretching. They were both smiling, but he could feel their pain. The fight had exhausted them. And as Toma revealed more about what happened, Ryo realized that this was _his _fault. They had gone to fight Sarenbo alone because he, Ryo, was too weak to fight with the Kikotei.

"So that's everything. How did you get there, by the way?"

Ryo looked up into Toma's expectant face. Then he looked back down at his hands. "I… I felt your pain."

"Huh?"

Ryo looked more pressingly away from his friends, his face starting to color. "I know it sounds stupid, but I mean… I got this monster headache and I just… some part of me _knew _that it had to do with you guys. That you were in trouble or being hurt. I didn't know what was happening, but I knew that much. So I… I headed in the direction of that feeling. It felt kind of like following an aura… and I found you all there."

He tried to think of a better way to express it, but when no further questions were forthcoming, he looked up to see the surprised and confused expressions on his friend's faces.

Seiji said, "Ryo, that's… I mean, we've been feeling something similar."

"…You can't be serious."

"I am. There's something going on with the armors. They're changing the way our minds work. The way we see the world. The way we connect with one another. Ever since we woke up this time around, we've had a heightened sense of all the others in our group. It's been growing for a while, but it's so blatant now."

"Seiji is stronger with it than the rest of us," Toma commented. "But I think that's related to a natural affinity."

"Shin is strongest after me," Seiji returned. "We could all feel that you were… not really there for a while. When you woke up, I felt a change. At least, I connected it with you waking up. How long have you been awake?"

"I don't know, but not very long."

"Then I suppose that's that…" Seiji replied.

"How are Shin and Shu?"

"Oh, they're relaxing too. Just uh… I guess listen for them?" Seiji replied with a grin. "See how far you can stretch your senses, kind of like what we do to detect demons. But don't do it too much if it starts to hurt. You're still recovering from, well… everything."

"Yeah," Toma scratched his head, "I tried it earlier when Seiji brought it up and I had a terrible headache for a couple hours. It's… a pain, to say the least."

Ryo smiled and closed his eyes. He instantly noticed Seiji and Toma more as auras in the room. It was like seeing and touching at the same time, without looking with ones eyes or physically touching a thing – altogether weird. He reached out with his thoughts, eerily like what he'd done when he pushed back against the presence of the Shiroi Kikotei, and after a few moments he felt the vague shapes of Shu and Shin – a blue and an orange aura floating outside and down a space from where the trio were. Their auras, although smaller at the current distance, had the same appearance as Seiji and Toma's – too weak.

_They're all hurting for what they did for me…_ he thought with a grimace._ If I hadn't been sleeping and had been ready to fight, they wouldn't be in pain right now._

"We're hoping that we'll recover for real this time, before another enemy shows up."

Ryo opened his eyes and he and Seiji looked at Toma.

"You think we'll get another enemy?" Ryo asked.

"Well, it's clear from Sarenbo's appearance that there are more demon lords than Arago out there. And from my research, though human knowledge is limited of the demon realm, I can combine what I remember from when we were there and, well… that place is vast. It's like a whole other world, simply existing on a different plane just beneath our own. It's at least as vast as our world, if not bigger. That makes it even more likely that there are more, perhaps a great many more, demons and demon lords than Arago. Word has evidently gotten out about the Shiroi Kikotei and its use during our battle with Arago. Like we thought, all of these creatures are apparently obsessed with power and getting more control over others, which the Shiroi Kikotei would do. So, like Arago came after us and our armors… these others will come after the Shiroi Kikotei, just like Sarenbo. And they might be even stronger than he was."

"That's great," Seiji commented dryly. "We almost died fighting Arago and Sarenbo. Are we going to have to do that _every _time we need to fight one of these guys?"

"We'll have to train some more is all," Toma said. He sighed and continued, "I know it's not the answer we all want, but that's all we can really do. We'll work on group fighting strategies. We'll get more research and information. These new enemies won't be like Arago, where we're running from battle to battle. We'll be more prepared and ready to fight, and we'll know each other better and how to fight as comrades."

"We'll need to learn more about our armors' capabilities," Seiji said. "I don't know about you, but my family doesn't have much experience with the use of my armor. It's clear from the behavior of the Demon Mashou that they can do more than single attacks. I'd like to learn about that."

"Agreed. If we could do more with our armors, things would probably be a lot easier."

"Which means we'll have to train with the Shiroi Kikotei, won't we?"

The other two senshi looked at Ryo, who was absently rubbing his arms. "I can barely control it. I'll have to learn how to use it properly."

"Considering the strain it puts on you," Toma said carefully, "And how it will hopefully only be called on as a last resort, we'll have to limit practice with it as much as possible, although I agree. We probably will need to work with it, if only to get more control over the damage wreaked by it. However, I do think that we might be able to deal with more problems if we learn more about our normal armors, like Seiji said. The Demon Mashou were kicking our butts long before Arago reformed. I get the feeling that if we could get at least close to that level, we wouldn't always need the Kikotei to save us."

"The problem with it is that it's good and inconvenient," Seiji said. "It can beat anyone, apparently, but it nearly kills us in the doing. No power comes without a price, and I guess that's the drawback."

"Well the armor was a part of Arago originally," Toma replied. "It wasn't made with the idea of humans using it, so the fact that we're tapping into this unknown potential… We can just hope that we don't blow ourselves up in the doing."

Ryo balled his hands into fists and said, "Yeah. I… I think I need some air." He set the tray of untouched food on the nightstand and got out of the bed, grabbing a nearby shirt and tugging it on.

"You sure?" Toma asked, "You still need—"

"I won't be able to sleep if I'm lying here, thinking about all this. I still haven't come to grips with this battle…war…whatever it is we're up to with the demon plane. My father always said that I was calmer out in nature. I take after him that way. I'll be better able to clear my head and relax out there than lying down in here, like I have for so long. And Byakuen could use a run, anyway."

The tiger growled in response.

"Come on, boy." He stepped past the others and moved to the door.

"Do you want one of us to come with you?" Seiji asked.

Ryo could hear the concern in their voices. They didn't want to leave him alone in his condition. _Heck, with my recent decision to run off while still recovering, in their shoes I'd do the same!_

But that didn't mean that he liked being babysat. He _needed_ air and to stretch his legs.

"No, it's all right. You guys rest up. I've got Byakuen to help me if something goes wrong, and I'll just call if I need something." He pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and showed it to them, before putting it back. Then he turned and walked out the door, feeling their gazes on his back and trying hard to pretend he didn't.

* * *

Out in the woods, he breathed the fresh air and tried to stretch again. He winced in pain and sat down on the grass, leaning his head down low and breathing deeply.

Byakuen came close and rubbed his face against the boy's forehead.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, Byakuen," Ryo said to him. Then the senshi stood and started walking around, trying to stretch tired legs, but slowly and carefully. "I've been sleeping for ages and I'm still tired. Humans _suck_."

Byakuen snorted at that.

"Well they do." He scratched the tiger's ears and winced. There was an odd buzzing in his ears again. _But everyone is at the house, and they're all fine_…

* * *

Up above, Sarenbo had been watching the senshi move around. They hadn't been very vigilant as they left the battlefield. He had had easily followed them back to their home and waited for his chance. His failing had been gathering the five together – they managed to activate the armor and use it against his shadow to destroy it. He needed to keep them apart, which should be easy now. After all, he only needed the one that actually had the armor.

Plus, he wanted to capture it, not fight its bearer to the death. He would do that best in a place of strength. Now the fool who wore it had separated himself from the others. He could see the white armor's aura following the whelp like a shadow, now that he knew what to look for. _I just need_ _to get him out of here…_ _and I have a good idea how._

* * *

"Yoroi Senshi!" Sarenbo called.

Ryo looked up, alarmed, and quickly activated his sub-yoroi. He couldn't see anything or sense anyone nearby, but the voice had come from above. Byakuen snarled and Ryo cried out, "Show yourself!"

A translucent image of Sarenbo appeared before him. Ryo backed up, still ready to fight, and wary of the nearby trees in case this was simply a distraction.

"Senshi!" Sarenbo repeated, "I wish to battle you for possession of the white armor."

Ryo narrowed his eyes. "You won't get it, but I'm ready if you are." _The guys are going to kill me… But none of us can really fight him right now. If I call the others, the Shiroi Kikotei might come out, and what happens to us then? Or he could just go after the others again…_

"Ha! You know, the one good thing about you humans is your nerve. Your will to fight. It almost rivals a lower demon's." His tone became serious as he continued, "But we won't fight here, unless you want your friends to perish this time. They can't handle the type of power you or I use."

"You couldn't handle all of us before." A white lie – he couldn't handle the _Shiroi Kikotei_ before – but still… _Why didn't he kill the others? He had the opportunity. Does he know that all the armors are needed to form the Shiroi Kikotei? But if so, why would he threaten to kill them? He'd never get it that way._

"Oh, but I handled your comrades easily before. You merely destroyed my shadow, and that only stumbled because of the white armor. But I see what the armor has done to you and your fellows. Will you kill your friends, just to fight me?" He knew the human was getting upset at his words. They were so ridiculously easy to manipulate. "I also have to wonder. I was in the Nether Realm when you first entered it with your friends. Your audacity was… intriguing. I wonder, will you hide behind the white armor at all times?"

"You hid behind a shadow."

Sarenbo snorted. "Not this time. This time will be real. You and I, sword to trident. What say you?"

Ryo thought it over. Firstly, it was a stupid, bad idea and stank of 'trap'. Safety in numbers, not solo missions of vengeance. He was still recovering. When he'd been stronger, he'd lasted all of a minute against Sarenbo, and that had included getting his ass handed to him, and wasn't even against the real Sarenbo, according to the demon. The Shiroi Kikotei was the one weapon that had worked on him or his powers or whatever had happened that night.

He tensed. _But we agreed that it might kill one or all of us if we summoned it again._

But if they were protecting the world from demons, then keeping the demons away from the armors and keeping them out of the mortal plane was part of the yoroi senshi's job description.

_So what choice do I have?_

"I can see you're hesitant," Sarenbo leered.

"I'd be an idiot not to see this for a trap."

"I merely wished to make things simple." He turned his gaze towards the house. "But I suppose that I could always just kill your friends to make sure that our fight is private."

Ryo's hands balled into fists. "No! You leave them alone!" _Dammit_…_ if he goes after them again… Would I even be able to stop him before he gets there? Would I be able to help? The others are relaxing right now - I'm the only who knows he's here. He could... Oh, they are going to kill me, if he doesn't kill me first._ "Fine. I'll fight you. Where?"

Sarenbo chuckled. "Humans are so simple. Come then." His image floated into the air and moved away.

Ryo looked at Byakuen, who stared steadily back, awaiting the boy's move. After a last glance back at the house, Ryo shook his head and hopped on the tiger's back. They both followed after Sarenbo.

* * *

A/N: Yeah, it's a bit short, all things being relative. Also a lot of talking, so maybe a bit boring. I hope you liked it, all the same. Also, I do play with some of the theory behind the armors' abilities in this and the coming chapters. I apologize if I offend anyone, but then this is AUesque, so… yeah.


	4. Chapter 4: The Armor Power

Chapter 4

Touma sat by his laptop on the balcony once again, while Seiji stood by the railing, watching the edge of the woods where Ryo had vanished. The blonde senshi occasionally walked away, paced back and forth, and then went back to the railing, tapping his foot restlessly when he stopped.

"You could always go and practice," Touma suggested, "or watch TV or read a book or something, rather than make me nervous, anyway."

"I should have followed him," Seiji replied. "If he collapses out there…"

"You think I didn't want to?" Touma replied. "He has Byakuen. The tiger acts smarter than us most of the time. Something I've been meaning to ask Ryo about…" he frowned, shook his head, and continued, "If something happens, I'm sure that he'll at least come and get us."

"Great. Intelligent tigers. Suicidal friends. Magical armor. Demons." Seiji put his hand on the rail. "Kuso, I miss home, where things made sense!"

Touma smiled sadly. "Personally, I find it all morbidly fascinating. Or at least thinking that lets me cope with it all. Well, what would you be doing if you were at home?"

Seiji raised his head and looked off into the distance, eyes misty. "Preparing for the next tournament. Studying. Spending time with my family."

"What did you compete in? Kendo?"

"Yeah. But I'm also tempted to be a police officer like my father, so I've also been learning about his job."

"That sounds good."

"What about you? What would you be doing?"

"Reading. Studying. Maybe even going to interviews."

"So you're this nerdy all the time?"

Touma rolled his eyes.

"Did you do anything with your archery before this?"

"I practice. I'm in a club at school. But I focus more on my other school work."

"Do you have any siblings?"

"Nope. You?"

"Yeah. Two sisters. I'm the middle sibling."

"Wow. Are they a handful?"

"Yeah." Seiji was quite for a while before he continued, "What do we do if this carries into the school year?"

"Eh?"

"This fight or campaign or whatever it is... We're on a break now. What happens when we have to go back to our normal lives, like school and jobs? I mean, yeah, fighting demons, saving the world… but do we just drop everything and do _this_ from now on?" He threw his arms out to the local area. The light shifted oddly, and Touma did not think it was natural.

The blue-haired senshi was silent. He simply stared at his screen and thought of his interests at school. His hopes for the future. He had plans. Being a yoroi senshi was not part of them, and they might even impact them greatly if Seiji was right.

"I… I don't know. Demons have existed for so long. I wonder if we're actually supposed to rid the world of them? And where would be even start?"

"Why?" Seiji glared out at the woods. "Is this our curse? Is there no one else? Where did Kaos come from? He looked like some sort of monk. Is there an order out there that knows everything we're missing; everything we _need_ to know? What the armors do, how to deal with the Nether Realm, what our duties are, how we leave it if we have to or just feel a need to. Or how we can go on with our lives. Or if we're even allows to anymore!"

In the silence that followed, Shin and Shu walked out below the balcony. "Something wrong?" Shu asked. "We heard yelling."

Seiji moved away from the balcony, glaring at the screen door instead. Touma stood up with his laptop and moved to the balcony so that the others could see him. He had a light smile on his face and kept a calm tone, "We were just talking about a few things."

"Well try not to wake up Ryo," Shin said. "The guy needs to rest up."

"Oh, he's fine," Touma said. "He got up a while ago and went out for a walk."

"What?" Shu said, moving forward with a look of alarm. "Where?"

"He—"

"He moved!" Seiji ran to the bannister, looking out at the woods again with a hard look on his face. "He's off the property."

"Where is he?" Shin asked.

"I don't know. But he's moving east fast, and I don't like it." He pulled his cellphone out, dialed Ryo's number, and hit the call button before putting it to his ear while tapping the railing with his fingers and following what he could feel of his comrade's progress with his eyes, staring in the direction Ryo had gone. After several moments, he got the phone's voicemail. "Dammit!" He put his phone in his pocket and ran into the house, down the stairs, and out to the car. Touma, after taking a moment to put his laptop down safely, was hot on his heels. Shin and Shu were already waiting by the car. "One of you keep calling him," Seiji said as he got into the vehicle's driver seat. "I can track him."

"You sure he isn't just taking his walk… elsewhere?" Shu asked as they all got in and Seiji started the engine up.

"He isn't stupid," Touma replied. "He would tell us if he was going that far away."

"Maybe he forgot?" Shin said as he called Ryo's cellphone a second time.

"Yeah," Seiji said sarcastically, "we're getting attacked by random demon lords; we're all battered from fighting, and we're dealing with so many unknowns in unfamiliar territory that leaving our only safe haven must be the smartest idea ever, especially without warning the rest of us."

"So he's been caught," Touma stated. "Or he's being baited or chased."

"That's my idea."

"Should we suit up?"

They were moving fast, Seiji focusing on the road and the red aura in his mind that told him where Ryo was. "I'd rather not crash because one of you blinds me with your armor activation light. But we'll have to do it once we stop."

"But how come none of us saw or felt the demon?" Shin asked, "If there was one, anyway…"

"Maybe the demon has a special ability we don't know about," Touma replied, "Or it's simply that we were all otherwise occupied, and Ryo was already something of a distance away. That would explain why Seiji was the only one who could sense him. We're also still getting used to these abilities. Once we figure out what's what, we should get used to sensing what's where and so on. But until then… we'll just have to learn how to react fast to things."

"They can get into the woods, though," Shu said. "Why did we think we were safe where we were? There's nothing keeping them from attacking. Is anyone else freaked out by this? They know where we are. They can find us where we eat. Where we _sleep_."

"We'll have to set up watches," Touma said. "I can look into better surveillance equipment. It might not be all that valuable for demons, but it might catch something."

"He's still not picking up," Shin said, redialing Ryo's number and putting the phone back to his ear.

"I swear," Seiji growled, "if he's not dead when we find him, I'm going to kill him myself!"

_Where are we going, the other side of Tokyo?_ Ryo wondered as they followed Sarenbo. He looked up at the sky, not liking the fact that they were heading towards a cloudier, darker portion of the area. _A storm on top of a fight with a demon… great._

Sarenbo's journey ended at a deserted dock behind a cluster of warehouses. He landed on the ground and fully materialized, facing them. Byakuen slid to a stop and Ryo hopped off. He summoned his Rekka armor. A red glow filled the air briefly, and then faded to reveal an armored yoroi senshi. He unsheathed his swords and stood ready to fight. Byakuen growled, standing protectively by Ryo's side.

"So, are you ready, Yoroi Senshi?" Sarenbo waved his trident experimentally.

Ryo glared, hoping he wasn't sweating too visibly. The strain, even just standing there, was great. "I'm ready, demon."

"Good." Sarenbo aimed and fired a bolt of boiling water at Ryo, who dodged and threw out his own attack as he moved. But there was so little power behind it that Sarenbo simply deflected it.

"Pathetic," the demon snorted. "Even worse than our previous encounter. I won't even bother wasting my—"

Byakuen lunged as Sarenbo aimed again and grabbed the demon's left arm in his jaws, knocking him over. With a toss of the tiger's head, Byakuen threw Sarenbo into the water. After half of a gargle, Sarenbo vanished beneath the water's surface.

Byakuen padded back to Ryo, who smiled and patted the tiger on the head. "Good job Byakuen. Although that might have made it a bit harder for me to aim at the guy. I don't think the water is going to kill him. That would be too easy."

Thick, dark green vines burst from the water and raced for the dock. Ryo stared in surprise for a moment before hopping back on Byakuen's back. The tiger ran before the vines could reach them, dodging them as they raced to snatch at the pair, and avoiding many, but not all. They finally caught at Byakuen's legs and Ryo's torso, snatching the senshi from the tiger's back, while smashing Byakuen against a nearby warehouse wall.

"Byakuen!" Ryo shouted, trying to move his hands so he could use his Sou en Zan or simply cut at the vines with his swords. But the vines was quickly forming a cocoon around him, trapping his arms at his sides. With the tightness and thickness of the cocoon, it was also getting rather hard for him to breathe.

* * *

Sarenbo stood in the mud at the bottom of the harbor, directing the vine monster. His senses prickled and he felt the arrival of the other four senshi. He snorted; they would not interfere! "Deal with the approaching human rabble!" he called to a nearby contingent of his Youja. As they swam to the surface, he looked back at the monster, tightening his grip on his trident. _I will not be interrupted! The white armor will be mine!_

* * *

"Where are we?" Shu asked as they pulled into the warehouse area.

"By the docks," Shin replied. "Can't you smell the salt?"

Shu sniffed and briefly covered his nose. "Well _now_ I can."

Touma looked up. "I don't like the looks of that." He pointed at the sky. "Storm, maybe. All we need is to look for someone or even fight in a storm."

"As long as I can see," Seiji said, stopping the car so they could all get out. "He's up ahead. Let's get ready, in case of… well, anything." Multi-colored light illuminated the area briefly as they all summoned their armors.

"All right," Seiji said. "Let's—" He drew his no-dachi and dropped into a fighting stance. The others were initially confused but quickly followed suit.

"What is it?" Touma asked quietly, looking around for enemies.

"Enemies," Shin replied, sensing the incoming hostiles himself. "Demons. A lot of them."

"Well that's just great," Shu said, pointing his yari in the direction Seiji was watching. "So what do we do? Wait for them to attack? Run for it? Split up and search for Ryo?"

"He's past them," Seiji replied. "We'll have to get through them to get to him."

"Splitting up might be a good idea," Touma offered. "Two of us go for Ryo. The other two distract the demons."

"All right," Shu said, eyes roving the area ahead for sight of the enemy. They could already hear the thud of the Youja' boots. "Who's going?"

"You and Seiji," Touma replied. "If he's hidden, Seiji has the best chance of finding him. And if he's underwater…"

Shu blanched, "Kuso."

"Come on, Shin," Seiji said, crouching briefly and then jumping up to the top of a nearby building. Shin followed suit.

Touma nocked an arrow and kept careful aim in the direction Seiji had been watching. "Be ready, Shu. We might need to provide a rather large distraction."

Shu swallowed and started swinging his iron bo in preparation. "You know, one of my teachers always gave us tons of homework every day. More than we could really do." They could see the soldiers approaching, now. A mass of green and black. " We would ask why he was such a taskmaster. We just couldn't finish it all. And he told us, 'so you learn to live with hardship'."

"I'm still hurting, too," Touma replied, a light smile on his face, "if it makes you feel any better." He aimed at one soldier and fired, and the front row of soldiers went down in a wave of golden light.

"Hey uglies!" Shu shouted. "Come and get us!" He ran forward and smashed his way through them, knocking their weapons aside, throwing some of them bodily out of his path, running others down.

* * *

Shin and Seiji hopped over one warehouse and then another, until they saw a dock covered in green vines. They spotted Ryo struggling in a vine cocoon that was being slowly dragged to the water. Byakuen, caught for a moment in his own vine cocoon, was able to finally shake the vines off and leapt forward, heading for the red senshi, but even more vines flew out to grab him and fling him back into another warehouse. He roared in pain.

"Dammit!" Seiji aimed and prepared to attack the whole mass and break Ryo free, but a Youja jumped up onto the rooftop and attacked him, forcing him back. Shin moved forward to help as more demons soldiers appeared, but Seiji yelled out, "No! Get Ryo out of there!"

Shin hesitated, then knocked away his two attackers and leapt not into the vines but into the water. Tackling the vines was suicide. He needed to find who or what was controlling them and stop them. Unfortunately, once he was beneath the surface, a swarm of Youja met his eyes, and he was noticed and quickly surrounded.

* * *

Ryo wasn't fully conscious of what was going on. The vines were strangling him. He had watched as he was dragged off the dock and plunged into the water, struggling vaguely to break free without any effect as the water surged forward, attempted to drown him, too. He was dimly aware of his face cover coming down and a small bubble of air forming around him, making breathing easier. He was able to wake a little more, but he was still just so tired…

The water was making his armor fizzle.

_Fire drowning in water_, he thought, vaguely, finding it morbidly funny.

He briefly took note of the reappearance of Sarenbo, standing in the mud below where the senshi floated. The demon looked up at the senshi briefly, and then swam a short distance away. The vines trapping Ryo followed him.

The demon directed the vines to arrange the senshi in a five-pointed star. He had a couple ideas of how to get ahold of the armor without the wearer's permission. The first was to simply get rid of the bothersome body taking up space inside of it. Acid – at least the kind he specialized in, which did relatively little damage to spirit and a great deal to tender human flesh – was a good way to accomplish this task. The armor would always recover from the minor damage, but the human host most likely would not. He pointed experimentally at the senshi's left arm, and an acid spear shot through Ryo's left elbow.

All Ryo could feel was agony. His body struggled of its instinctive volition to free itself from its bonds and so get away from the pain, but his whole body was paralyzed by the circle. Unable to escape, he screamed himself hoarse.

He felt something heavy clamp over his throat, stopping the scream and any further attempts at crying out.

"Enough squealing," Sarenbo hissed, making sure the silencing spell was secure before moving his thoughts back to the acid spear now lodged securely in place and making sure that the armor was not irreparably damaged. The area around the spear was melted a bit, but he could detect that the armor was otherwise undamaged. _It will recover from that, with time. _The familiar smell of burnt flesh met his nose, reminding him of battles long past. _Good. It's working. I wonder why the white armor does not appear for its bearer's defense.._. _No matter. I'll just take the armor and figure out how to summon it on my own. _"This will be over quickly," he added aloud, forming another spear.

The pain burned and crackled and sparked – like how boiling water felt before Ryo had received the Rekka armor, only this was a thousand times worse. It had no end, and he wondered that he was still alive to keep feeling it. Ryo's throat felt raw from his attempts to vocalize it, even against the silencing spell. Almost immediately, a second burst of pain shot through his right elbow, and the his vision turned white.

* * *

A short distance away, Shin was finishing with an attack when he felt a burst of pain through his left arm. He cried out and had to fight a strong desire to crouch, dodging blows to stay alive.

_I wasn't hit in the arm!_ He thought. _None of the demons were using magic or poison, and none of them are-ugh this hurts-firing arrows – I don't even have one in my arm._ He frowned as he felt a bad sensation in his senses. _Acid in the water. Dammit, don't demons have anything better to do than kill the fish?_ _Wait… it's near Ryo! What is going _on_?!_

* * *

Seiji was still stuck on the same rooftop as earlier, only now he was struggling with the vines that had risen to look for him. He yelped as he felt a twinge of pain in his right arm. He kept moving, grunting with effort as he tried to ignore it.

* * *

The whiteness was pushed back for the familiar ocean blue as pain trapped Ryo in a vice. _I can't do anything._ Ryo still tried, vainly, to move, to break free, to call out, but he was trapped and being strangled and there was only pain, pain, pain. He gave up again, but his body instinctively tried to spasm, only to be stopped by the paralysis._ I'm dying and it hurts and I can't do anything. Please, just make it stop… let me fall asleep or something… I can't bear this!_

But the armor would not let him go. It dragged him back to wakefulness every time blackness threatened to fully overtake him.

Two more acid spears pierced through his legs.

Sarenbo eyed him curiously. "Hmm… Still alive? I should think that with most of your body rotting away, you'd be dead by now. The armor must be even more powerful than I thought. I think I'll just fix that." He pointed right at the senshi's head.

* * *

Shu stumbled as he felt pain bloom in his left knee. A Youja took advantage and knocked him over. Thankfully, Shu was still able to bring up his sansetsukon to block any more blows.

_What the hell? None of them hit my knee._ Although he was focused on the fighting, a scream suddenly filled his ears and he almost lost his grip on the weapon.

_That can't be…_ He knocked the Youja holding him down aside, leapt to his feet, and shouted "Gan Tessai!" before stumbling to his one good knee. Through the pain he looked out for new enemies and set his jaw. _Hold on, buddy. We're coming for you! _

* * *

Touma had taken to the rooftop of a nearby warehouse, to shoot at enemies as they approached below. When he felt the pain in his right knee, he stumbled over and only a quick grab for the ledge stopped him from falling off the roof entirely. He quickly retook his position and, managing a pained kneeling position that let him at least see over the edge of the building, fired a Shin Ku Ha to clear the gathering that had formed in his brief absence.

_They don't stop._ Even as the light faded, more Youja appeared on the horizon, heading for him. He looked over at Shu, who was similarly surrounded._ We can't keep this up forever. And I don't remember one of them hitting me in the knee. Am I getting tired already?_

* * *

Sarenbo's arm was abruptly blown aside along with its owner, slamming into the sand and mud a distance away. The demon's distraction caused the spears to explode in a burst of previously contained energy, spraying Ryo with acid. Thankfully, his armor was still intact enough to protect him from the weaker spray. The binding spell was still in place, so Ryo was unable to move his head, but through the pain, he vaguely sensed Shin's approaching light blue aura. Shin swam towards him through the water, stopped by his side and stared in shock, feeling an urge to throw up as the stench of burnt flesh met his nostrils.

"Kuso… what's that monster done to you?"

Ryo, somewhat unsure over whether or not Shin was an apparition and still strongly distracted by the pain of his injuries as well as the water's affect on his armor, did not know what to do. He still could not speak. But he felt himself wake up a little, happy to see Shin there, and then he realized that his armor was also waking up in reaction to Shin. The spirit in the armor was also happy Shin was there, for other reasons.

_Fight!_

An image of his friends crumpled on the ground, their sad tired faces watching over him flashed through Ryo's mind, coupled with the sheer hunger he sensed in that unnatural voice. If he could speak, Ryo would have screamed at the other senshi to run. But his armor simply lunged for the Torrent armor, which glowed bright blue around a surprised Shin. The blue senshi was paralyzed as the Shiroi Kikotei took over, sapping his extra strength and using the combined strength of the two nearby armors to piggyback to the other three senshi on dry land.

Toma, backing into a corner as the Youja came nearer, watched them all get knocked off the rooftop in a burst of blue light.

Shu, shielding himself from more blows, watched in shock as the Youja were burned up by an orange glow.

Seiji, tangled up in the vines and trying once again to cast an attack on the approaching Youja, dropped to the ground as the vines burned away, and saw the soldiers vanish as green light surrounded him.

They were all paralyzed in place as the Shiroi Kikotei took up their energy, heading back with a shriek to Ryo.

The spirit of the Shiroi Kikotei roared and Ryo felt the pain of the acid's damage fade. A warm blanketing sensation surrounded him, and he felt the white armor cocoon him, burning through the vines surrounding him and the pathetic silencing spell holding him. He could finally breathe properly, and even speak, but the Shiroi Kikotei was already drawing so deeply into his reserves and pulling him along with its battlelust that he could do little more than try not to collapse.

Sarenbo, filled with alam and anger at Shin's arrival and attack, was already swimming forward to confront the senshi. He saw the Shiroi Kikotei form and hissed, "Very well. Let's see if I can take you like this. After all, you're in _my_ territory now." He raised his trident to attack.

Ryo was caught in the middle of the seductive warmth of the Inferno, the armor's battlelust, and the exhausting energy drain created by the armor's need, coupled with his wounds and the sense of helplessness as the armor dragged him along like a puppet on strings. He was in agony as the spirit of the armor raised his arms to attack, but he was able to rasp out the words for the attack: "Rage… of… Inferno!". He focused all his will and pain on Sarenbo. An enormous burst of fire emerged from swords, cracking the metal with its ferocity, and blew Sarenbo entirely away, with barely a cry of alarm, boiling the water nearby and causing the vine monster to shrivel.

Shin, watching in shock, sweated in the heat and tried to ignore the death cries of nearby fish.

The remaining flame of the attack faded into the distant waters, and Ryo stood for a moment, purely under the power of the armor, staring blankly ahead at where he'd cast the attack. He felt the armor's exultation, and knew it mirrored his own at seeing the demon defeated. He'd killed again.

His mind was too exhausted to process the spirit's urge to fight more, and his weakness took over, pushing the armor away from view as it turned to full-time healing his wounds. When it was gone, he sagged forward, floating freely in the water, unconscious. He was restored to the simple Wildfire armor, which was scorched and melted.

Shin, released from the pull of the armor, breathed a sigh of relief. The pain in his arm was gone and he felt lighter. He focused on the poison nearby and managed to dissipate it – he could do nothing for the dead fish, but he could mitigate future problems. With that done, he swam forward, grabbed Ryo – trying to ignore the molten, gruesome mess he saw on his friend's arms and legs, and then swam to the surface. When he broke into open air, he floated for a bit, breathing heavily. He looked down at Ryo, who was still unconscious.

"Shin!" Seiji ran down the nearest dock, followed by Touma, Shu, and Byakuen. "You found him!"

"Yeah. He's hurt bad, though. Sarenbo got him." He looked hard into the eyes of the others. "The white armor was summoned and it destroyed Sarenbo."

Touma's expression was hard. "We felt it."

Shu rubbed his left thigh. "I'm really starting to hate that thing."

"You okay?" Seiji asked, looked down at the pair in the water. "Can you get out?"

"I think the water is helping a lot," Shin replied, "But I think that getting out is still beyond me. What about the Youja?"

"All gone," Shu said as Seiji looked around for a ladder.

Touma reached out, "Wait a second. Let me try something." He focused on the pair. A translucent silver bubble surrounded them, and they rose slowly out of the water, floated up to the dock, and landed near the other senshi. The bubble vanished, and Shin staggered to the ground with the extra burden of Ryo's out-of-water weight and his own tiredness. A torrent of seawater, trapped inside the bubble with the senshi gushed out, lapping at their feet and splashing over the side of the dock. Ryo's armor faded, leaving him in his civilian clothing. Burn marks covered his torso and face once more, reminiscent of their last battle with Sarenbo, but worse was the red and black coating each of his limbs, and the smell of burnt flesh that filled the air.

Touma staggered and Shu caught him so that he did not fall over. Seiji moved towards Shin and Ryo and took Ryo's right side to help Shin.

"How did you do that?" Shu asked.

Touma smiled, "I focused the wind around them. An adaptation of something I did before."

"What the hell happened down there?" Seiji asked, looking in shock over Ryo.

"Let's just get out of here," Shin said. "He needs help. We all do."

Seiji led the group to the car. "Where should we go?" He asked as they loaded up, Ryo going between Shu and Shin in the backseat. "To the hospital? Those burns…" he wasn't the only one uncomfortable looking at them.

"And say what?" Touma asked. "That he got them from fighting with a demon? He doesn't have any ID on him. None of us are related to him, and someone will have to look into that because either we ran into him in the middle of nowhere and his next of kin need to be contacted, or they have to start filing paperwork to pay for it all and figure out how he got the way he is. Heck, we don't even know what he'll do to the hospital equipment while he's there. The armor has been acting crazy lately – if his powers start acting up and he burns through equipment…"

"Yeah," Shin said. "Sarenbo is gone, as far as I know, but he came back once. He might be able to do it again. Or other demons could come along. He'd be in an area filled with normal people, too. If a demon attacked him there, think of all the damage they could cause. Even calling out a doctor to treat him would be practically signing the person's death warrant."

"Well, so what do we do?" Seiji demanded. "Treat him ourselves? Do any of _you_ know how to treat burns?"

"…I know where we could find some medical information online," Touma offered. "I could always try something…"

"…You've got to be kidding," Seiji said.

"What choice do we have?"

Shin was looking over Ryo's wounds. "Guys, shut up. Look at this." Shu leaned forward, ahead of the others, who all looked at Ryo's right arm. The clothing material was mostly gone, and all that was left behind was mostly gruesome dark blisters. He'd thought most of Ryo's limbs were just battered beyond use because of the acid, but he had seen him moving his arms in the Shiroi Kikotei, so something was amiss there.

Even as they watched, flesh smoothed itself out and became a nice healthy peach color.

"Uso…" Shu and Seiji said together.

"Incredible," Touma said. "I… what am I even looking at? The armors can heal us. That's… that's incredible."

"You think the armor is doing that?" Shu asked. "He's not even wearing any of it."

"It could be leftover energy," Touma said. "He was wearing the Shiroi Kikotei, which we all know is just full of energy. It has enough to take out Arago, after all. We know the armors need us to act, though. It probably realized that Ryo was in danger or… or dying, like when our armors didn't deactivate when Arago tossed out to the winds and we were stuck in those extreme environments. They protected us. So it started to heal him, so that he could use it. And it still needs him for whatever it is we're supposed to be doing."

"So we're going with the whole armor sentience theory?" Seiji demanded, moving away from the car. "They're stuck to us and we can't get them off?" His tone was angry, but he was also crossing his arms to hide his shaking. The sight of Ryo's injuries and his miraculous healing had rattled the blonde senshi deeply.

"I don't know!" Touma put his hands on his eyes and rubbed them hard, feeling the ache in his bones from the fight and the exhaustion from looking for answers to crazy problems and questions other people who wave away as wild fantasies. "Why should I know? I'm pulling all of this out of my ass. You stick a guy whose body is magically healing far faster than the normal rate, right in front of my eyes, throw an army of Youja at me and an entire dimension of beings I never knew existed and you expect answers from me! I just… we're _alive_, Shu. We're alive, and I don't know why and the fact that I don't bothers me." He should have ashamed. He shouldn't have been saying it all. But one thought led to another and he just kept on going with a string of things that he had never dared to say before, that exhaustion and watching a friend dying had never pushed out before. "We have to decide whether to risk the lives of others by taking someone to the hospital, or risk his life and pray it'll be all right and not take him in. I don't know about you, people don't depend on me in my normal life. I don't make life-or-death decisions every day, especially for other people. It's not… it's not my job. It's not my life. Whose life is that?" He pulled his hands down and looked at Ryo and there were tears in his eyes. "I mean look at him… just look. Kuso, _look_…"

After a bit of awkward silence Seiji deactivated his armor and sat back in the driver's seat. As he snapped his seatbelt on, he said, "Let's head back. We'll get him cleaned up and… and we'll… We'll go from there."

The others deactivated their armors and filed into their seats, remaining silent as Seiji started the engine and drove away from the place.

Byakuen ran alongside the car as they drove. They had been silent in the car for a while when Shu asked, "Is now a bad time to bring up the fact that, well, while I was fighting, I heard this… this scream. And… and it didn't stop, and it… I knew it was him? Did… did anyone else hear that?"

Shin looked ill and took to staring at Ryo's arm – the one he was gently touching to keep the sleeping senshi still. Touma shut his eyes and scratched his forehead. Seiji kept his eyes on the road. No one replied.


	5. Chapter 5: Consequences

Chapter 5

They arrived back at the safehouse late at night. The storm had followed them and it was raining heavily. Shin and Shu carried Ryo inside while Touma pulled out a dry-erase board and started sketching out a watch schedule. Seiji paused by the stairs and watched him for a moment, trying to find something to say, but the blue-haired senshi's silence was eerie, even to him. He finally shrugged and left to go take a shower.

Shu came down to get something to eat, followed shortly by Shin, who yawned and said, "He's in his bed. He looked a lot better than before."

Touma looked at the brown-haired senshi, his expression bleak and tired. "Good. I set up a watch. Here, take a look. I need someone else's input. We can make something better when we're all more awake."

As Shin looked over it, Shu came over with a bag of chips, munching quietly as he looked over Shin's shoulder at the chart. "Looks fine to me," he commented between bites. "I can eat while I sit up, I guess. Where should I patrol?"

"How far can you sense things outside of this room?"

Shu raised an eyebrow at the odd remark, then closed his eyes, pausing in his eating to focus. "Mmm… Around by the lake. But I have to concentrate real hard."

"That's a good distance. I think for now you can stay inside. If it stops raining, try sitting out. Maybe circle the property. This will have to be a learning process for all of us."

Shin smiled. "And here I thought we were on Summer Break."

Touma smiled and looked at Shin, "Hey, can I talk to Shu for a second, Shin? Alone?"

"Ehh… sure." Shin glanced at Shu, who shrugged in response. Shin then walked up to his room.

Touma breathed in deeply and looked at Shu. "Shu, I—"

"If it's about making me take first watch, don't sweat about it. I'm not ready to go to bed yet, anyway."

"Oh. Well I just wanted you to know that it's not a sense of laziness or anything on my part. I'd take it myself, but I... I don't trust myself right now."

Shu smiled. "Ah. That steam you let off earlier. You should be more like me – when I'm angry, I just let go! It's a nice stress reliever."

Touma didn't smile. "Our lives might be in danger right now, Shu. This isn't funny."

Shu's smile faded. "You always think I'm making a joke. I like to look on the bright side of things, is all. You're having a rough time – we all are – and I'm trying to make this easier for you. You don't have to apologize. Go to sleep. Get your head together so you can pull your side of Defend the House when your watch comes up, and I'll finish eating."

Touma's face warmed. _I didn't mean to insult him…_ "Shu, I—"

"You're running on your sleeping time, Touma. Just go to bed." He then turned and walked away, ending the conversation, digging back into his chip bag.

Touma stared after him, open-mouthed, for a while, before shaking his head and walking up to his room, his shoulders sagging as he went.

* * *

Recovery was slow. This battle had gone better for them than others, and even with the summoning of the white armor, they were still well off in the energy and health department. But they were still tired and worn out. The watch didn't help, because now they were back on alert, like when they were fighting with Arago the first time. They slept, took their watches, exercised, watched television, ate, and in general tried to avoid talking about how they felt about the burden laid upon their shoulders.

Ryo's body healed slowly, but still far faster than normal means.. Touma checked him and took notes on his progress, not knowing what else to do, and with no ideas from the others.

When Ryo finally woke up, four days after the incident, he was very groggy. He blinked at the ceiling and felt _heavy_, like he hadn't moved in a while. He turned his head and spotted Touma, who was sitting in a chair nearby, typing on his laptop.

"Touma?" he asked, quietly, looking curiously at the blue-haired senshi. "What're you doing here?" His voice was raspy. _Why is my throat so dry? I—_

_ Sarenbo's demonic helmet looking down at him as he said, "This will be over quickly."_

_ Shin glowing bright blue and staring at him in terror, the water churning around them as the Shiroi Kikotei activated._

_ Fight!_

Touma started when he heard his name and nearly knocked his laptop onto the floor. When he saw that Ryo had his eyes open, he smiled brightly, put his laptop down and walked over. "Ryo! You're awake!"

Ryo's throat constricted and he started to shake.

"Ryo? Are you hurting?"

"The battle… Where's… Saren-Saren…" He remembered trying to scream and pain, pain…

"He's gone," Touma replied. _Gotta keep him talking. Keep him awake. The guy has to get moving. He has to eat. _"We beat him. _You_ beat him. You summoned the Shiroi Kikotei, and you got rid of him."

"I don't… what…" He tried to remember. _There was water and… and pain… But I didn't summon it. It reacted to…_

_Shin, glowing blue, a look of shock on his face._

_ Fight!_

"I didn't summon… Didn't… It reacted to-to Shin."

"Come on, buddy," Touma said, patting him on the shoulder. The black-haired senshi was trembling and he was far too pale. "Don't worry about it. Wanna eat something?"

"I guess I—" Feeling came back in a rush as his mind started waking up a bit more and realized that it was in an only recently healed, formerly heavily battered body.

_Pain._

_ I'm gong to die. Not being able to scream, to move, to get away._

This new pain was like his body had gained extra weight and was being attacked all over by pins and needles. It hurt even to twitch.

Tears fell down Ryo's cheeks and he shut his eyes. "Please… please make it stop… I can't… I _can't…_"

_Dammit,_ Touma thought, watching nervously. _Is this what's going to happen? We all break down? We all fall apart?_ He reached out and clasped the other boy's left hand. "It's all right," he said. "It's all right." _Rule #1 for terror: be soothing. Be friendly. Or do exactly what I've needed someone to do for me and just be _there_._

Ryo shut his eyes and made no other sounds beyond heavy breathing, as tears fell down his cheeks. He squeezed Touma's hand.

"It's all right. It's all right." Touma shut his eyes and bowed his head, not quite knowing who he was reassuring. "It's all right."

* * *

Shu walked in about two hours later with dinner for Touma, and paused in surprise. Ryo was lying back, his head on the pillow again. Touma was leaning against the side of the bed, his head resting on his own left arm on the bed next to Ryo. Touma's right hand rested beneath Ryo's left one.

_Well… you don't see that every day. _"Uh… Touma?" Shu nudged the blue-haired senshi cautiously. "Buddy?"

Touma opened his eyes groggily and sat up. "Oh, Shu." He rubbed his eyes. "Hey." He carefully pulled his hand from under Ryo's.

"So…" Shu said, "What did I miss?" _Do I even want to know? I know we're all falling to pieces around here. Heck, I've been more emotional than usual lately with all this stuff going on. I guess I'm just a little better at hiding it than the others._

"He woke up," Touma replied. _Wish I could get control of myself. I'm all over the place._ "He was upset. I calmed him down."

"How?"

"Have you ever had to deal with a stray animal?"

"Uh, no?"

"Soothing tone. Repetition. Little movement. People are just like big animals. Injured and sick people more so. Part of the thing about dealing with people is learning that. Or just read a lot of books about psychology and veterinary science."

"Oh." Shu looked back down at Ryo. "And the hand holding?"

Touma snorted. "What, you think I took advantage of him or something? Please. The guy barely even knew who I was. He needed help. I held his hand. Get over it."

Shu blushed and scratched his head to hide it. "Oh uh… yeah. Sorry. Uh... Got your dinner for you." He held the tray out as Touma stood up and sat back in his chair, taking the tray when he was seated.

"Thanks."

"How's he doing, otherwise?"

"Well he woke up, which is a good sign. He also talked a little. Hopefully he'll wake up again soon and we can get him up and walking. His outer physical healing is almost done, as far as I can tell."

"What about scars?"

"Eh?"

"I know it sounds weird, but we're all stir-crazy around here, and when you're that bored you start thinking about weird things… Well, I've been in a fight or two myself before all of this started. I've got my own scars and such from past fights. And we've been in plenty of fights with the demons since this whole mess started. But after the thing with Ryo and Sarenbo, I… I looked a bit. At myself." He looked around nervously. _Forget it, I'm just as screwed up as the rest of em. It's not like anything is too weird for us anymore. _"And I saw that I don't have any new scars. Not a one. The armor must have been working on me. So I guess… I guess Ryo won't have any, either, maybe."

"I didn't even…" _Just what are the limits here?_ Touma wondered. _What can't these things do?_ _Well… other than maybe not kill us eventually. _He scratched his head and said, absently, "I suppose that makes sense. It's knitting together muscle and nerves that should just be gone. Scar tissue is probably nothing in comparison to that. But where is all this energy coming from…?"

"You don't know?"

Touma looked at Shu again. "Oh, sorry. Uhh… I have a couple ideas. One of them is that they're left over from Arago."

"Well we already knew that, didn't we?"

"I-" Touma glanced at Ryo and stood up, adding, "Not here", He took his tray and lead Shu out of the room, shutting the door behind him. "Ryo needs to sleep." They wandered into the kitchen and Touma set his tray down, grabbed his phone, and started up a recording. "So I don't have to say this all again and in case something comes up," he said for Shu's confusion. "I'm just going to go simple here. A lot of the ideas are a bit… out there. So anyway… The simple answer is that Arago is a giant demonic spirit originally contained in a sort of solidified spiritual armor. When Kaos defeated him, the spirit fled, leaving the armor behind. But Arago made that armor – possibly from his own spiritual form. Part of him was then left in it when Kaos separated it into the nine armors. Whatever spirit was left in them was weaker in smaller remnants, but still demonic. When we finally received the armors, we were able to tap into that power to use in our attacks."

"But over time, that power drained away, because we can't have limitless power… we'd be able to overwhelm anything that came at us. It has to come from somewhere. I think that armors started to rely on us and the environments we traveled in for replenishment. We've seen that we're stronger in certain environments – Shin in water, Seiji in sunlight, Ryo in that volcano, and so on. We gain power there. When we're not in a place like that, the armors rely more on our own spiritual energy, and we act like batteries. That would explain why we're getting better at using them – it's like exercising our bodies, or our spiritual ones or willpower or whatever we're using as a bridge between ourselves and the armors."

"But then the armors were combined in Arago, and the Shiroi Kikotei only appeared after that. I have to wonder if we took some power back from him to help form it, maybe to give a power boost to our armors of some sort. Who knows whether they've changed as a result of that whole situation? So the armors are his. The power we had originally was his. And now the Shiroi Kikotei is some amalgamation of his and us, maybe. I don't know. I don't think we could have done it on our own before we fought him. Which means we're back to using demonic energy of some sort."

"Yeah, and we knew that. I think."

"Yes. But we assumed it was a one-way process – that we could just use it without any repercussions. I'm concerned… I'm concerned about all this healing stuff. I'm concerned about the abilities I'm getting. I can understand just using it to use it. But the fact that we're changing… that we're getting these psychic senses and healing like crazy… The Demon Mashou were corrupted because they accepted the powers Arago gave them. They lived in the Nether Realm, spending all that time in that awful place, surrounded by whatever demonic forces or spiritual energies were there. What does exposure to demonic energy do? Does it turn you into something like the Demon Mashou? Does it kill you? What happens when we can support the armors under our own power? Will it kill us? Or will we be something else… Like the Demon Mashou? Something other?"

Shu swallowed nervously. "You mean we're really turning into… into _them?_"

"No! We're… What I mean is that… Look at the Shiroi Kikotei. It's a powerful armor. More powerful than any of ours individually, maybe even more powerfully than when we were simply working together without literally combining all of our energies. But every time we use it, we exhaust our energy resources, whatever those resources are – demonic energy, our own spiritual energy, the latent energy in the environment, whatever. Since we don't collapse every time we use our own armors, I get the sense that we're adjusted to them by now. That our… spiritual muscles or whatever lets us survive using them, even at their maximum potential, are strong enough to withstand them. The reason we can't handle the Shiroi Kikotei may simply be that we were given something before we were strong enough to handle it, especially when we were still healing up from other things."

"Like moving up a level of weights before you're ready."

"Yes! Exactly!"

"And this is important because…?"

Touma just stared at him for a while, not knowing what to say.

"What? What did I say?"

"Shu… These abilities… they're not… they're not _normal_. Not _human_."

"Oh come on. So the armors absorb energy like uh… like plants. We can sense demons. Well if demons need energy to survive, and we're using their abilities, it would make sense to me that we have that ability – like a hunter looking for its prey. They aren't ours. They aren't… _would you just get to the damn point because if it's that we're turning into Demon Mashou I really want to know!_" The last was said through clenched teeth.

"Shu, I don't know if we're like them. Maybe we're turning into what Kaos is. Maybe it's just some form of spiritual enlightenment. The armors have demonstrated that they're affecting us even when we're not wearing them – or at least when we can't see them. If Ryo didn't use that armor, he might be dead right now. But I don't even know if he can separate himself from it. I don't know if any of us can. For one thing, it might be a safety hazard, if demons can track us. For another… they almost feel like they're a part of us."

"But that's not important. Just speculation. What is important is what happens when we can handle the Shiroi Kikotei. What happens when we're that strong?"

"We don't collapse after battles, I guess."

"No. I mean yes, but… What are we after that? Are we human? We have to be running out of that energy we stole from Arago. There was still some left when we were fighting, so we couldn't have taken it all. Or we'll run out of it someday. When our bodies start fully taking on the burden of fueling the armors, at least alongside whatever energy we can grab from around us – what happens? We're all acting weird in relation to our elements. Shin can sense where water is. He's stronger in it. He feels better in it. Seiji is stronger in sunlight. I keep sensing changes in wind pressure and I can sense storms long before they show up. I can feel the wind direction. I can move faster than normal, too, and see farther. Seiji and I were talking about normal life after this… after Summer's over." He walked to the door and opened it, looking outside. "How do you go back to a 'normal' life, when you're us? Do we assume that it's just the armors – that the abilities will go away once they do, assuming we can even get rid of them at that point and don't need to keep them as some sort of spiritual planetary guardians? Or what if they're permanent? What if they get worse somehow?"

Shu said nothing in response to that. He'd thought about going back home after this. Seeing his family and friends again. School. A job, someday. He was clinging desperately to the fact that Touma hadn't confirmed that they were like the Demon Mashou… yet. Everything else he could handle. So he could tell what type of rocks were underneath his feet? He could sleep anywhere, even without a mattress. He felt comfortable outdoors. That wasn't so bad. _I don't glow or bleed 'evil' at people when I walk around, like the Demon Mashou. I don't see how blending back into normal life can be so hard._ He didn't want to think about the 'get worse' idea. He didn't know how his _own_ powers could get 'worse'. But there was one other thing that bothered him in all this.

"Touma," he moved forward to stand near the other senshi again. He could hear the birds and the bugs and the water and just _the world_ moving all around them. He looked outside himself. _Is this what they mean on TV when they say 'the weight of the world'?_ He snorted. _Great, as if this could get any worse. Now I'm just _CORNY! But looking at Touma now, that's what it looked like was weighing down on the blue-haired boy's shoulders, plus a side of 'why me?' Shu was feeling that, too.

"Touma," he repeated. The other senshi kept looking outside. "You say that we'll get stronger, like we have with our own armors. What if we don't? What if… what if this time, we can't? What if the Shiroi Kikotei is too much?"

"Given all the new abilities we've been getting," Touma said quietly, "and we haven't fully explored those yet, I don't think so. It's possible. We've survived everything so far, even summoning the armor multiple times."

"Touma, just humor me. What if?"

"…I guess we could die."

Shu turned away and walked back into the kitchen.

Touma sighed and closed the door. "Shu, I don't think it'll happen. I think we'll be fine." The other senshi didn't respond to this. He just set about scrounging for food.

Touma leaned back against a wall, looking at the ceiling. _I really was tired when I fell asleep. I'm still tired. We haven't gotten together and talked about this yet. I shouldn't be angry at Shu for this, but dammit, it's important! I can't just be the one they all dump the research on._

_ But then… what else do I do with my spare time? Train? Think about this stuff? At least the research gives me time to avoid thinking about it too deeply. I just learn it and fit the pieces together, like a puzzle. Realize the implications later._

"How are the others?" He asked Shu, turned his gaze back to the other boy, who was currently starting to cook what looked like a big meal.

"Oh uh… Seiji's sleeping. Shin's on watch. He's sitting in the lake so that he can stretch out his senses better."

"All right. Thanks."

* * *

Ryo opened his eyes the next afternoon and turned his head to see Seiji sitting there next to him, reading a book. Ryo rasped out, "Seiji? Water please?"

The blonde senshi looked up in surprise, saw Ryo staring at him, and walked over to the nightstand. What Ryo attempted to do was move his elbows back so he could push himself up. The pain was less than it had been, but his body was so weak that he was unable to do even that much, so he ended up rocking himself back a bit, moving his arms a little, and then holding as still as possible to try and make the pain stop from just _that_ much. "I can't… my arms…"

Seiji had seen the movement as he got the water and watched the result as he turned back. _His arm muscles… jeez, is he going to have to relearn how to walk, too? _ "It's okay. Let me help you." He put the cup down and grabbed Ryo's left shoulder to help pull the senshi up into a sitting position. He then puffed his pillows so that they would help keep him up. "It's a little awkward, but work with your back, not your arms." He picked up the cup again and helped Ryo drink it. Ryo tried to hold it, but it half-slipped through his fingers before Seiji caught it again and just held it for him.

When he was done, Seiji put the cup back.

"What's going on?" Ryo asked, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. "Why can't I use my arms?"

"Touma said your arm muscles are growing back. You won't have full use of your arms for a while, but with practice, you should get it back."

"My what? I'm… what?" He tried to move his arms again, and succeeded in lifting them up a couple inches off the blanket, but after holding them in the air for a while and slightly moving his fingers, he cringed and dropped them. "It hurts... Agh… what happened?"

"Do you remember the fight with Sarenbo?"

Ryo frowned and thought back. "I remember going to the docks to…" he flushed. "I'm sorry I shouldn't-I just-he threatened you guys. He said he'd kill you if I didn't follow him."

_What is he…? Oh, he's remembering the start of it. Is he a complete idiot? _"And you didn't think we could handle him?"

"I didn't know! You-you couldn't do it before! And you were tired and—augh!" He shut his eyes. He'd tried to move his legs. _Why does that hurt? Why does it—?_

"We were doing okay. More okay than you were. You thought you could take the guy on your own? Don't you remember what happened last time?" _I'm hitting a guy while he's down. REAL down. That's low. But he shouldn't have been that stupid!_

"Of course I remember…" Ryo replied, tears coming out of his eyes. "Of course I remember. It hurts… Kuso it hurts…"

"Lie still," Seiji said. "Don't try to move too much. Touma wants you to take a walk."

"I thought I was supposed to stay still."

"To conserve your energy for when you don't. You need to get moving. You've been lying here for five days and you've got muscles regrowing. You need to start walking around before something worse happens and so your body doesn't heal wrong."

"You said that again. Why… how are my muscles 'regrowing'?"

"That's why I asked you about what happened earlier. In your fight with Sarenbo, Shin said that you got speared by some sort of acid attack. It was eating through your body. Touma thinks Sarenbo was trying to steal the armor, which meant getting rid of its current wearer. Thankfully, the Shiroi Kikotei dealt with him before that could happen."

"So it was acid…"

"Yeah. You looked really bad when we pulled you out of the water, but you started healing as we watched. We brought you back here. You barely even have bruises at this point."

Ryo looked down at his arm, which was mostly just peach skin with a bit of redness, like a fading burn wound. "But how…?"

"For the moment, just be satisfied with 'the armor did it'. Anything more is just too confusing. Touma's put some theories together and is trying to organize them so that they're easy to explain, but I think it's a lost cause. Anyway; the important thing right now is to get you up and healthy again, so we can be ready for the next fight."

Ryo tensed. "Did another demon show up?"

"No. We just need to be ready in case one does. Stay here for a second." He walked out and called for Touma, who trotted up the stairs and walked into the room.

"Ryo, you're awake again! How are you feeling?"

"Every part of me hurts and I can barely move."

Touma smiled sadly. "I thought as much. Well, we'll just have to get to work on that. Come on, let's see how far we can get you walking." Touma went forward and took Ryo's right shoulder, while Seiji took Ryo's left. "Can you move at all?" Touma asked. "Try getting yourself off the bed with your legs."

Ryo tried to move a leg over to the edge of the bed and cringed in pain. After a moment, though, he pushed his left leg over to the edge and bent it over. He was already sweating. Then he dragged his other leg over and tried to slide to the edge. Touma and Seiji helped move him forward. He was in a sitting position on the bed's edge and sweating profusely, when Touma said, "All right. This is good. Now let's see if you can stand."

Ryo carefully set his feet on the ground, and then tried to place his weight there to push himself up. The result was intense pain that led to his falling forward and knocking the other two back. Byakuen stepped forward and mewled at Ryo, who didn't even have the strength to reach out and pet his friend. The other senshi had a good enough hold that he didn't fall entirely, but it was an awkward moment as they juggled and pulled him back onto the bed. Ryo was panting and there were more tears in his eyes from the pain. "You-you've gotta be kidding… I can't walk!" He shut his eyes. "I can't walk!"

"It's all right," Touma said, puffing a little. "Let's try that again. We'll just get you moving a little, to get you used to being up again. Baby steps. Come on, Seiji." He took Ryo's shoulder again, while Seiji took the other. They picked him up and off the bed, his toes dragging along the floor while he leaned into them. Or pretended to, anyway. Whenever he tried, his hands wouldn't grab properly. The other senshi had to hold him, or else he'd just slip down.

_Damn, he's light_, Seiji thought. _Guy needs to eat soon, or forget the demons; the wind'll knock him over, he's so light!_

Byakuen watched them as they moved around the room. At one point, Ryo tried to put his feet down to support himself, feeling awkward and embarrassed for depending on the others so much. That resulted in him knocking Touma over and falling to the ground, where he lay in a heap by the blue-haired senshi. Seiji knelt and helped pull him over.

"You okay, Ryo?"

Ryo's face was very red, but he wasn't crying anymore. _I want to walk. I can't not walk anymore. I can't. I can't. I can't._ "I-I need to do this. I'll do this. Just help me up. I'll try again. I'm sorry for all the trouble."

He fell down twice more before Touma said it was enough. They were all tired, and Ryo was falling asleep when they helped him back to the bed.

"Woah, Ryo," Seiji said. "You need to stay awake and eat something. Watch him, Touma." He left the room and went downstairs to get some food. Touma checked Ryo's wounds.

"Doesn't look like anything's amiss. How do you feel?"

"Still hurting everywhere," Ryo replied. "More so now, though."

"I'm sorry. I know this sounds kind of cold, but you'll just have to live with the pain for a while. You're healing at an accelerated rate. Maybe you'll recover at that rate, as well. The rest of us are doing rather well quite quickly after all that's happened. Your injuries were just more severe than the things we've encountered."

"Seiji said that the armors were healing us."

"Yeah, it's the only explanation that makes sense."

"Tell me. Maybe it'll keep me awake."

* * *

Seiji returned with a bowl of hot soup, which he helped feed Ryo. Touma went to get his laptop to try and ease Ryo's discomfort by decreasing the number of people in the room. The other senshi was already embarrassed by the fact that he couldn't walk on his own. He didn't need an audience to watch someone else feed him because he couldn't hold a spoon.

"So this is life now," Ryo said when the bowl was empty and Seiji had set it aside. "Try and get my legs back. Walk again. Move my arms a bit."

"This is life, for now, Ryo. We'll get through it. Don't worry."

"An hour ago you were about to yell at me for being an idiot and running off to get myself killed when I should have used my common sense to stay."

"An hour ago you couldn't say a sentence that long," _Although you still sound really raspy._ "Are you feeling any better?"

"Throat's improving. Slowly." He coughed and continued, "I feel a little more awake after the soup."

"Awake enough to want me to yell at you?"

"Awake enough to know I deserve it. I knew it was stupid but I still went. I didn't know it well enough."

"You were trying to protect us. That's… touching. I'm glad you're so ready to fight for us. Any of us."

Ryo shut his eyes. "Please tell me what happened. I need to know. All of it. Was anyone hurt?"

"No. We're all just a little tired."

"Because why?"

Seiji told him about the fight, leaving out his promises about what he'd do to Ryo after it was over. He felt a bit embarrassed by his anger. _Adrenaline and a need to take out my anger at my own lapse in judgment. I should have been keeping better watch on you._

Ryo said nothing while he listened. Seiji paused when he thought the other senshi had gone to sleep, but Ryo said, "Don't stop. I'm still listening."

When Seiji was finished, they sat in silence for a while.

_No one was hurt because of me this time. Well… badly. Seiji said that none of them are feeling pain anymore._

His stomach and throat were definitely improving. It felt less like his throat was made of sandpaper. His lips felt less dry.

"It's a little cold," Ryo said. "Would you raise the thermostat a little please?"

"Sure." Seiji stood and walked over to the thermostat and raised it by five degrees. Then he came back and sat down.

"Thanks." After that Ryo sat, waiting for the room to warm up. When it did so only marginally, he repeated his request.

"Uh, sure." Seiji raised it another five degrees. It was already rather uncomfortable. Today was a hot day, and the inside was meant to be kept cool. He was glad that he was at least wearing a tank top. "You gonna go to sleep?"

"Yeah, soon as the temperature goes up. I'm freezing."

"Ryo, it's a sauna in here. Come on."

"Well, maybe it is to you, but I'm freezing!"

Seiji frowned. "I'll be right back." He walked away and called for Touma. The other senshi showed up and Seiji stopped him before he went in. "He keeps asking me to raise the temperature. On a day like _today_."

"Well… maybe he's just cold?"

"Have you felt the temperature in that room?"

A crash sounded behind Seiji. He turned and ran back into the room, followed by Touma. Seiji came to a halt when he saw Ryo leaning against the wall beneath the thermostat, panting. "Too… cold…"

Touma knelt and took Ryo's temperature. "Jeez, you're burning up."

"I don't care. It's too cold in here!"

"Ryo, it's boiling in here. We don't want to risk—"

The black-haired senshi looked straight into Touma's eyes and grabbed feebly for his collar. "You listen to me! You haven't been inside a volcano, or even just inside the Shiroi Kikotei! This is like the arctic in comparison. I'm freezing out here, and I can't sleep because of that."

_We're all acting weird in relation to our elements…_ Touma's words haunted him as he stared at the pale, slightly manic face before him. He shut his eyes briefly, then stood up and raised the temperature ten degrees.

"Did you raise it?"

"Yes."

"Thank you."

Touma and Seiji pulled Ryo back to the bed, and both of them were sweating profusely afterward, as a result of the work and the risen temperature. When they both stood up, Ryo smiled at them. "Feels slightly livable now. Thanks." Then he shut his eyes and went to sleep.

Seiji pulled Touma away and whispered, "Well? What now?"

"I have no idea," Touma replied, looking at the thermostat as he wiped a hand over his soaking brow. "He's happy. I guess we leave him alone."

"He could die of heat stroke in here!"

"I doubt that," Touma replied. "Just like I doubt that it's possible to drown Shin, strangle me, blind you, or… well, I don't know with Shu, but I guess he'll be able to sleep anywhere he wants at this point, whether it's on spikes or moss."

"What are you talking about?"

"Ryo fell asleep in a _volcano_. The Shiroi Kikotei is also supposed to be a fire-based armor. It may be using all of our armors, but it's demonstrated a clear liking for Ryo's ability set. If the armors are… adjusting us or whatever so that we can use them better, or if we're just adjusting to use them, then he's probably becoming more adjusted to higher temperatures. It might be for the best. How was he after you gave him that soup?"

"Better, he said. I don't know that it means anything."

"He managed to drag himself to the thermostat. He couldn't even walk on his own before. Think of Shin when he was in the water. Let's go with the heat and see what happens."

"What if it does kill him, though?"

"Then we're exactly where we were before.


	6. Chapter 6: Moving On

Chapter 6

The thermostat was moved up another ten degrees before all was said and done. The next day, Ryo was able to walk mostly under his own power, with the help of another yoroi senshi holding his shoulder, and Byakuen watching him the entire while. He ate two bowls of soup and listened to more of Touma's theories.

The third day he stood out in the yard and summoned his armor and swords to try swinging them around a bit. There was only one problem with that. When they appeared, the swords were cracked all the way through. Touma, who was observing nearby, came forward to look them over.

"They were fine the last time I fought," Ryo said. His voice had lost its raspiness, and he was more awake than he'd been in weeks. "Now I'm afraid they'll shatter if I hit something with them."

"The last attack you used was on Sarenbo, right?" Touma asked. "The 'Rage of Inferno'?"

"Yes."

"… I wonder." He moved back to his laptop and sorted through his files. "Your armor changes when you wear the Shiroi Kikotei. Do you use different swords when you fight in the Shiroi Kikotei?"

"I… No. No I don't." _Why did I never notice that? How odd._

"That's… interesting."

"Why would it do that? The rest of the armor is different. Why would that stay the same?"

"Maybe it's because _you're_ the wearer? Despite its using all of our powers to form, it chose the Rekka ability set to emulate."

"Touma, before you start… how many of these theories do you have?"

"Huh?"

"Well, you keep coming up with new ones…"

"Most of which are not confirmed. Ryo. We're doing matter-energy conversion every time we…" Touma stared in shock at the other senshi.

Ryo waited, and waited, and then asked, "Every time we…?"

"Oh. I just… well, that's pretty amazing that we're doing something like that. Every time we summon our armors. We turn them into solid shapes. Throwing out a lot of theories about how it works is going to happen. I could probably spend the rest of my life trying to figure it out, spiritual understanding or not."

"All right, all right. Just go back to what you were saying before. It's emulating my armor?"

"Ah. Right. It's emulating _your_ powers, specifically. As far as we're aware, you can't use any of our powers, or some form of ours, although I guess we could always try that…"

"Touma. Focus. Swords."

"Right. Sorry. There's a couple reasons. I still like the theory that it picked you as wearer because you were the last captured during our fight with Arago and had the best chance at escape. It would be too lucky if the Rekka armor bearer just _happened_ to be the one the armor goes to. Either way, it could be that Shiroi Kikotei is adjusting to the Rekka armor. That it's interlacing itself with parts of it. I have to wonder if the swords not changing is a sign of the armor clinging to the Rekka armor buried beneath. Kind of like a child is a mix of attributes from their parents. Since the Rekka armor is the one nearest its creation, it clings most to that one. Which is why you don't have weapons like the ones any of us use. You just use your own swords."

"…Okay. And this matters because…?"

"_Or_ it could be your spiritual input is more involved in the armor's creation than we thought. We have to summon our own armors. While the Shiroi Kikotei seems to respond to danger rather than us summoning it, maybe this is a sign that _you_ can actually summon it on your own. Or at least it's not fully in control. Your swords are asserting themselves as part of the armor as a sign that the Shiroi Kikotei isn't allowed to fully take over."

"Touma. Swords. Almost broken."

"The point is that whatever is happening, I think the Shiroi Kikotei is a sort of imprint on the design of the Rekka armor, and I don't think the Rekka armor is designed for the output of the Shiroi Kikotei. Otherwise, you probably wouldn't need the Shiroi Kikotei to beat the creatures we've fought. So your swords, trying to channel that power, turn into this. It's like driving a car with the break on. Sure, the car can take it, but the tires will eventually wear away and the rubber will burn behind you. It just wasn't meant to take that load."

"So what, they just break and that's it?"

"What's curious to me," Touma said, seeming to ignore the question, "Is that our armors have mended themselves after battles. Why aren't your swords doing the same?"

"They had an off day? A _lot_ of off days?"

Touma rolled his eyes. "I think there was something else involved. Maybe the armor has been exerting so much energy into healing _you_ that it hasn't been working so hard on itself."

"So we should just give it time to heal?"

"That might be one solution."

"I find the idea of armor that 'heals' itself just…"

"Weird? Well, that seems to be our lot in life." Touma eyed the blades. "If it were a normal set of armor, I'd just get replacements, because this could happen again. We need something that can handle the Shiroi Kikotei."

"How would you go about replacing bits of this kind of armor?"

"I'm just throwing out ideas, Ryo. I have no idea if or how they'll work, so I'm trying solutions that pop into my mind. If they were real armor, that's what I would suggest in a similar situation. I need to do some more research…"

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to—"

"No, it's fine. This is important. The Shiroi Kikotei is our big weapon. We need it in working order."

"I think we should make replacing the swords a priority." Seiji stepped forward from the house door holding a glass of lemonade. He'd heard the commotion and had been listening in. "If the swords wear out every time Ryo uses them, that's a problem. He basically can't be injured, because if he is, the armor won't be able to repair the swords, and they'll just break, and we'll be out a weapon."

"If he fought at his full strength—" Touma started.

"Which is _never_ supposed to be a guarantee," Seiji interrupted. "And which should never be relied on. Yes, so the armor might have more energy to draw on if he fought while at full strength. So what? We could get attacked later today. Or tomorrow. Or the next day. Or we could recover fully and get thrown right back into this same situation and still get attacked by demons. We need to be ready for that. We need swords that _won't break_."

"Then you better start working with something that isn't solid," Touma replied, coolly. "Because most anything solid that I know of _can_ break. If there's some sort of demon-steel or whatever that can't, I have no idea what it is, and I have no idea where to start looking for it. Unless you have any ideas?"

Seiji glared back and replied, "You know I don't."

Ryo watched them briefly, and then turned his head to look at the two cracked weapons in his hands. He could feel the fire in them. The desire to burn. To blaze.

_Fight!_

Ryo shut his eyes and crushed the thought as hard as he could. _Shut up shut up shut up shut up._

_ Fight!_

_ I'm safe here. No one is attacking. I'm fine. Nothing is wrong._

The thought faded and he opened his eyes.

"You okay, Ryo?" Seiji asked, looking at him in concern. _The guy's still twitchy as hell. Forget the swords, I'm still concerned about how he'll react in a fight. He hasn't been showing very good behavior lately outside of one._

"Yes," Ryo replied. "I was just thinking." He hefted the Rekka sword and dropped it to the ground. It landed in the grass, and after a moment, dissolved into red light and faded from sight, along with his armor, leaving his sub-yoroi behind. "That was a good idea. A sword that isn't solid. You said that our armors are made of energy, right, Touma?"

The blue-haired senshi blinked in surprise. "Well, yes, but I—"

"Well then it makes sense that our weapons are made out of energy too. How does _energy_ break?"

Seiji frowned. "The same way our armors can break, I guess. They have a set shape. Mess with the design, and it will break."

"But why?"

The other two stared at him, confused. "Why what?"

"Touma, your arrows turn into energy when you fire them. Water comes out of Shin's yari. Shu's sansetsukon can cause earthquakes from long distances., I'm guessing by throwing out some sort of energy… Seiji's sword throws lightning. My swords throw fire. All of these are energy-based attacks. What's the point of them coming out of a solid object? That doesn't make any sense."

"…You're right," Touma said.

"Right about what?" Seiji asked, exasperated. "That's the stuff that doesn't make sense in all this?"

"He's right because it doesn't make any sense. Where's the energy come from? The last time I checked, energy doesn't just _pop_ out of solid matter. It's generated." He scratched his chin. "The armors are made out of energy, as are the weapons. Their form is solid when we summon it, but not when we don't. So why does it become solid? …Because we need it to be."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Seiji asked.

"You know the saying, 'The sky is the limit'?"

"Yeah."

"Well, people… we limit ourselves. It's more complicated than this, but there are things our brains simply can't comprehend, like space. We can't picture something that's infinite. We picture finiteness, even though we know that's not how it is. It doesn't mean we're stupid, but that this information simply doesn't fit with our understanding of how things work. So we ignore it, and go on as if it doesn't exist, or we make up something that allows us to comprehend it without drastically shifting our worldview. There's also the concept that our beliefs can change the way we act. For instance, studies have been taken that demonstrate that patients who _believe_ that they will get better, or who _believe _that they've taken a drug that will help them, even when they haven't, have gotten better in some way."

"You've lost me even more," Seiji said.

"I'm getting to it. The five of us have been given great powers with these armors. Armors no other humans have been granted in hundreds of years. None of us really knew what we were getting into when we got into this. We thought we were saving the world, yeah. But we didn't know a thing about demons or the Nether Realm or Arago. But what did we know? That we were each receiving a family heirloom: a suit of armor to help us fight to save the world. So what did we get? A suit of armor and weapons to help us save the world."

"Yes," Seiji continued sarcastically, "And then we came to Tokyo, gathered together, got knocked around by Arago, beat him up, and then came here, where we got beat up some more. I know this part of the story, Touma."

"But do you know the part where the armors only appear as they do because we will it? That our weapons are not as strictly decided as we might think?"

"…No they don't. I mean… They don't. Do they?"

"Ryo's point is that our armors and weapons are already at least physically part energy. Why not be fullway? It doesn't make sense for them to be half and half. But if Kaos can take an armor like Arago's apart and turn it into some other shape, why can't we do the same? Especially when he's not around to direct them and they've been under our control and, well… the fact that Ryo's armor at least has as much effect on the Shiroi Kikotei as it does. And we are in charge of the armors, to an extent. We direct their powers and we summon them into and out of existence. A case could be made that we're making the weapons physical because we need them to be. Because we're all used to handling solid weapons that you can see and touch and that look like fancy versions of weapons we've used in the past, and we just expect them to do really flashy magical things. But what if we could throw that façade away? What if we could just have them as they are: energy weapons, plain and simple. That's all they've been all along. We just couldn't see it. Arago demonstrated that he can switch between energy and a solid form at will. Why can't we?"

"Okay," Seiji began. "Ignoring the fact that we're talking about Arago, a _demon, _and not ourselves and we're all living in a fantasyland because we're so bored and tired and just stressed out by everything, sure, I kind of maybe get what you're saying here. But how does _any_ of this help with Ryo's sword problem?"

"They're weapons made of energy, Seiji," Touma said. "You don't need to repair energy. You just need to recharge it when you're running out. If Ryo can wield a weapon that's made purely from energy, he won't need a sword replacement, because he'll be able to throw away the design that's too weak for the Shiroi Kikotei. His swords would just adjust. In that scenario, if the swords lose their use, it would be because he's out of energy use, and then he's dead anyway." He ducked his head. "I know that sounds bad, but it's true. For all of us. Without that power, we're just people. We can dodge, run away… but that's it."

"All right" Seiji said. "And how do you expect to _do_ this, anyhow?"

Touma laughed, "Ha, that's a nice question. I haven't the faintest idea." He looked down at the spot where Ryo's sword had vanished. "But I guess it's just trial and error then. Ryo, try summoning the sword back. But this time, think of when it dissolved. Imagine that you have a sword made out of fire, just sitting in your hand."

"I… what? That's crazy."

"It was your idea, Ryo."

"Yeah, it was my idea on how to deal with it. I didn't want to hold any flaming sticks."

"It shouldn't hurt you. You're a fire-element user. You literally sit in a burning hunk of metal all the time and you're fine. Just deal with it for a little while."

"I'm more likely to blow myself up than actually accomplish anything in my state."

"Well, it's what you _do_ already. Just don't picture it as… solid."

"Picture it as a solid, but not solid? Oh, that makes _perfect_ sense."

_He's sarcastic,_ Touma thought. _And it's not bitter. Maybe we brought him back._ He merely smiled and watched.

Ryo focused for a bit, then wobbled and sat down in the grass. His other sword vanished. "Ugh."

"You all right, Ryo?" Seiji asked.

"I'm okay. Just tired." _Wish I could stand up for more than five minutes._

Seiji frowned. "Maybe one of us should try it. Ryo, you still need to finish healing. And the rest of us are getting restless anyway."

_I need to be ready, though. I can barely fight anymore. _"But the Shiroi Kikotei—"

"If it doesn't work," Touma interrupted, "Then there's no sense in you wasting your energy on it when you need everything you can get for healing. Seiji, can you go into town to pick up a wooden practice sword for him, so he can practice?"

Seiji looked sidelong at Touma. _And what, leave him another window to break out? _"If you can spare me. I'll be back in a bit." He looked at Ryo and said, "Stay here."

Touma cringed.

Seiji turned and went to the car. After a few minutes, they heard the engine start and fade into the distance as the blonde senshi drove off.

Ryo was looking at the ground. _Seiji doesn't trust me. I suppose I wouldn't, if I were in his shoes. But what does he expect me to do? Limp away?_ He snorted. _Oh right, I've already done that, twice. No wonder he's annoyed._

"Wanna take a break?" Touma asked, moving forward to set a hand on Ryo's shoulder. _You need to stop looking so gloomy. Seiji's mood is catching. We're falling apart as it is. We need to get things together._

Ryo shrugged him off and replied, "Just a moment. I'll walk for a bit when I get back up." Byakuen walked over and sat by him. Ryo leaned back on the cat, scratching white and black fur.

Touma crossed his arms. "So, between Shu, Shin, and I, who would be best for this?"

"Why do you want my input?"

"Why wouldn't I? I think I've had my fair share of ideas for the day." He smiled, but when Ryo continued to frown at the ground, his own smile faded. "What is it?"

"I've left twice now, when I shouldn't have. I've pulled you all into danger. I do nothing for anyone – I can't take watches, cook, clean, get groceries… I can barely move around without assistance. Why… why do any of you even still bother with me? Why do you think I can be trusted when I basically said that I couldn't trust you to defend yourselves?"

Wind rustled Touma's hair, and he let it move through his fingers, like a comforting cooling touch. "Ryo, you're our friend. We've fought together. You're also smart, and despite some suicidal death wishes every now and then, you're a good person, and we all know that. I'd be stupid not to trust your opinion. If you're upset about Seiji…"

"He has a right to be angry at me. I would, too, if I was in his shoes."

Touma let the silence grow for a bit, before continuing, "He cares, too, you know. It's not just anger. It's not… _fun_ watching a friend get hurt, especially when you feel like you have to watch them all the time to stop that from happening, or when you feel like you can never protect them enough, and to know that you weren't able to protect them. He's worried. We all are. But we're in this together, and we'll only get through it together."

Ryo bowed his head more. "Thanks," he replied, quietly.

Touma smiled. "So, who do you think for the test?"

"…Probably not Shu," Ryo replied, his voice a little shaky. "Somehow I think that asking someone whose element is 'stone' to picture his weapon as anything other than 'solid' is asking a bit much."

Touma smiled. "Yeah. He's sleeping anyway. I'm open to trying it, but I wonder if we should just grab Shin first. We have a lake here. He'll have the most power behind him if he attempts it."

"Sounds good to me."

Touma turned to the house and called up to the second floor, "Shin!"

* * *

"I don't know about this, Touma," Shin said as he stood waist deep in the lake. He had his hands raised and clasped as if he was holding his yari, although there was nothing there. His eyes were shut and his brow was creased in concentration.

"It should be simple," Touma replied, standing on the lakeshore with his arms crossed. "Just… picture your weapon without your armor."

"But my weapon comes with my armor," Shin replied. "Why don't I just—"

"If you summon your armor, then your weapon will already be there. I don't want you to turn your weapon into water. I want you to try forming its shape yourself. Arago can do it. We should be able to."

"You think we're on par with Arago?" Shin asked, opening his eyes and turning to look at Touma in confusion.

Ryo walked in slow circles, humming to himself to try and ignore the other two, even as he kept watch on Shin out of the corner of his eye.

"Well… I don't expect any of us to level a city or call forth an army of demons. But energy manipulation, at least on a basic level, is something we've all demonstrated a capability for. Every time we use our attacks, we do that. This is just an advanced form of it."

Shin sighed and turned back to the water. "Should I try, I don't know, forming it out of the lake water? I saw that on a TV show once."

"No. We don't actively take from our environment. So don't try it now. It's a good thought for the future, though."

"Great. More experiments." Shin closed his eyes again.

Ryo stopped and sat down, watching silently.

Blue light started to shine, and Touma bit his lip. "Come on, come on…"

And then Shin was knocked back onto land, and the blue glow faded. He was wearing his sub-yoroi, and his hands were empty. He coughed and pushed himself up.

"You okay?" Touma asked, running forward to check on him.

Shin turned to smile at him. "I felt something in my hands, and it didn't feel like metal. It was just… just water. And I was holding it! If only for a moment. Then it blew up on me."

Touma grinned. "So it's possible! Yes!"

"Should I try again?"

"If you feel up to it," Touma replied. "I suppose that I might try as well."

"Why are people blowing themselves up while I'm trying to sleep?" Shu leaned out of the balcony to yell, his face contorted in anger.

"We're just trying an experiment!" Touma called back. "Go back to sleep!"

Shu snorted. "Then experiment more quietly!" He turned and walked back into the house.

Shin smiled and turned back to the water.

Ryo sighed and shut his eyes, falling quickly asleep. He dreamt for the first time in a long time, and what he saw was the scene of their final battle with Arago. _The air of the Nether Realm stank. The sky was its familiar dark murky color – yet another reminder of the wrongness of the place. Arago's tall body loomed above his castle. Ryo saw the demon lord's hand change from pure spirit to solid as it devoured Shutendoji. He looked into the demon's face, angry again at the loss of the former Mashou. Shutendoji was a good person. He had embraced his humanity. And Arago had just killed him like it was nothing._

_ But it was not Arago's face that Ryo was looking at. It was his own._

Ryo opened his eyes, breathing rapidly. Byakuen bumped his arm in concern, and the senshi turned and buried his head in his old friend's fur. _What happened to normal dreams? The ones where you talk to vegetables and idols and sit on the moon feeding pigeons? Why can't these nightmares just leave me alone?_

"Well that wind arrow fired well," Touma said, attracting Ryo's attention. Ryo looked up and saw Touma aiming his bow at the remains of a tree that looked like it had exploded. "Wish my bow would stop forming, though."

_So they got it to work… or Touma did, anyway. But honestly… _"You know," he said, "destroying the environment here might not be the best idea. It just seems a little… overmuch."

Touma looked over at him. "Oh, you're awake. Well, I did think about aiming at the sky, but if any demons are watching, I'd kind of be broadcasting our position."

"So… you're okay destroying the woods?"

"No! I mean..." He flushed, ashamed.

"Just be careful, okay? Trees aren't toys you can just knock over and then pick up again and… animals live there. They keep our planet clean. They keep this place looking nice. They're one of the things Arago would probably get rid of if he were given free reign, and your destroying them reminds me of the actions of the Demon Mashou."

"Sorry, Ryo. I guess I just got carried away. I'll be careful when I practice."

Ryo caught sight of Shin, who had turned to look. Embarrassed, Ryo stood up, still wobbling. "Just… just never mind. I think I'm just grouchy or something. I'll go in and lie down or something. It's nice to see that you're making progress."

Touma and Shin watched him walk away.

"Touma, should we be looking for more outside help for this?" Shin quietly asked.

"Well, if you think I haven't been trying—"

"I meant psychologically."

Touma turned to look at him. "What?"

"I mean what we're all thinking. I'm thinking of five kids stuck in a ridiculous situation they weren't prepared for with the only living person who helped us being dead, and all of us falling apart because of it. Ryo couldn't walk or move for a time. Yeah, he had a nice fast recovery but… well, how do you come out of that? How do you confront what we have here, with the armors and the fight and everything? We weren't ignoring you when… when you got upset after the battle with Sarenbo, Touma. We listened. None of us are talking about it. We're just recovering. And that doesn't fix everything. We just have to keep running into it until we finally fix it or it screws us over permanently."

"Well unless you're hiding a therapist somewhere, I don't think we really have the time to go out and find one. Or the right to risk the life of someone coming out here to talk to us while we've all got targets painted on our heads by a realm full of demon lords." Touma deactivated his armor and stretched. He paused and said, "And that… that was a bad moment. I just… I lost my cool."

"Well I'm glad you did," Shin said, deactivating his armor, as well. "Something had to happen. You started it. Now, well… at least we're reaching out. Sure, maybe we're all focusing in on Ryo like he's a sick puppy or something, which makes me feel really bad for the guy since he obviously doesn't like it and I can completely understand that because it's all just… screwed up… But at least we're trying. Or something."

"Well… next time I start to break down, I'll remember that I have your support. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Wanna get something to eat? I'm hungry."

"Sure."

* * *

Ryo lay on his bed with his eyes closed. The fingers on his left hand picked at the fur on Byakuen's back as the tiger rested his head on the bed and purred.

"I'd be amazed that you weren't bothered by the heat in here, if I didn't know you as well as I did."

Byakuen grumbled and continued purring.

Ryo was still curious about that aspect of things. He wasn't bothered at all by the abnormal heat in the room. It was actually more comfortable than the outside, which was a good ten degrees cooler. He wasn't sweating. He even had most of his body under the blankets, where it was even warmer. It was very relaxing.

"I wonder what a desert would feel like…"

He opened his eyes. "I don't want to sleep, Byakuen. If I sleep, I dream. But I have to sleep so I can recharge and be able to actually walk for more than five minutes and I am really, really tired of whining… Now I'm whining about whining. Ugggggh…"

He leaned his head again Byakuen's muzzle. "You wouldn't know any way for me to not dream, would you? That was nice when I wasn't. I really don't want to dream again, because I only ever have nightmares. Because why should I ever _dream_? May I never have a moment of _peace_." He raised his head and looked down at Byakuen. "Wish I could run with you, buddy. I really…" As he looked into the tiger's eyes, there was a slight flash of red light and his head dropped, his eyes shut, and he was asleep. Byakuen watched him for several moments, nudged his head over to the pillow, and then set his own head back down on the side of the bed and watched the senshi sleep. Ryo did not dream.

* * *

A/N: Touma is like the voice who asks how to make a plothole make sense. He can come up with a number of wild scenarios about it, and who knows if they're true? They're just answers we use to make things easy to process. He reminds me of some of my professors. We just talk theory for hours and forget time passes. But when push comes to shove and he has a job to do, he gets it done. Hopefully this makes some sense, but if it doesn't, well, they're just Touma's theories, after all. And if he can end it with "do x to make y happen cause maybe it's doable", I think the mission has been accomplished.

Next chapter we should see some more fighting and a little less theory rambling. But I guess we'll see what we'll see? To everyone who has stayed with me this far, thank you!


	7. Chapter 7: Kenbukyou Appears

Chapter 7

"They don't look very intimidating," Kenbukyou said, scratching Byakueno's furry head as he watched the yoroi senshi fighting through the Nether Realm. The scenes were playing on the surface of a lake, while Kenbukyou stood on the bank. The demon was covered entirely in green and yellow armor, and two red pinpricks of light that marked his eyes shone out of a shadow-filled helmet. Byakueno was a large black tiger wearing protective white, black, and red armor and carrying two swords on either side of his body. The area was filled with rocks and trees and the lake before them.

"It seems to me that Arago was defeated more by luck and his own stupidity than anything else," the demon continued. "He always was far too arrogant." He looked down at Byakueno. "I think we'll just cut him down a peg more by taking that Shiroi Kikotei he covets so. What do you think?"

Byakueno growled.

"Go find the tiger," Kenbukyou said as he stepped back and banished the water mirror. "I'll find us a good field of battle."

Byakueno ran off. Kenbukyou looked up at the sky and said, "Your time will come, Arago. And this time, it will be at my hands!"

* * *

"Shu, you sure you don't want to be a chef someday?" Shin asked as he watched Shu putting together yet more food for a midnight snack. Shin was on watch again, and Shu had promised him a part of the food.

_It smells really good, too_, Shin thought. He glanced at the remains of Shu's late dinner. _Does he ever stop eating?_

"I thought about it, and my uncle offered to help get me a job after I finish with school, so I can experiment and see what it is I want to cook." Shu sighed. "But I don't know. I like food. I just don't know how I would feel just making it all day for other people."

"I'm guessing your uncle runs a restaurant?"

"Yeah, in New York. He's a really good chef and his business is doing really well. It's a very popular restaurant."

"Well, is he happy doing what he does?"

"Oh yeah. He loves it."

"Does he like food as much as you do?"

"Oh, probably more so. It's his life, after all, and I'm just a student!"

"Well then. I don't see any problems with you taking after him some day. Obviously you can still love food and still do that job well."

"Hmm… You're right." Shu laughed. "But I mean, c'mon. That's so far away…"

"Well, we're in high school now… college is next. And you need to have a job in mind." Shin's eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't happen to be one of those rich kids who just goes to college for fun or something, right?"

"What?"

"I bet your parents have a nice, cushy management position for you in some big company somewhere!"

"Shin," Shu looked his friend, trying not to burst out laughing, "Have you slept at all? Because you sound like a crazy person."

"Ha!" Shin shook his head. "I'm just crazy like everyone is." He eyed Shin as the purple-haired senshi finished cooking and placed his food on a plate. "You know… Shu, you're probably the calmest of all of us."

"Shin, I know I'm really awesome in battles—"

_He says with a grin…_ Shin did _not_ snort.

"—But you know I'm always the first to _not_ know what's going on, and to ask what's going on. I'm always complaining."

"Yeah, but you haven't thrown a tantrum or burst into tears or, well… You've kept your cool, at least in that area. Yeah, you might struggle to know what's going on at times—"

_He says without any hesitation_, Shu thought as he glared at his snack.

"But you've always been that way. You're not cracking at the seams." Shin smiled at him. "I really respect that."

Shu smiled wryly at his friend, then looked down at the floor. "That's nice of you, Shin, but… I think you've misplaced your respect."

"What do you mean?"

"Look, I know it's stupid. It's bad that I… I mean, I learned how to fight before I came here, like everyone. When you're fighting, you should be calm and focused. But everything that's going on… Let's just say that I'm starting to get _glad_ when enemies show up for me to hit. As long as I can direct everything I'm feeling at them… I'm fine. I can stay somewhat calm. For a while."

He looked back at the other senshi. "But it can't last. I can't just keep working out my anger through fights. That's a bad path to take. So, yeah, I might not be 'breaking down' and screaming at the sky and crying my eyes out or whatever… but just because you can't see it or didn't notice it, doesn't mean it's not happening. Because it is. I'm just as affected as all of you are. Maybe I'm just better at hiding it."

Shin was silent as he took all that in, and took his time before he replied, "I'm sorry, Shu. I didn't know. I should have, but I didn't."

"It's all right, Shin."

* * *

Upstairs, Byakuen opened his eyes, saw that Ryo was still sleeping, and then sat up, looking around. He got up and moved to the screen door, which opened for him. He stepped out into the night.

Ryo stirred and opened his eyes. "Byakuen?" He turned to where the cat had been resting, and saw only empty floor. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. "Byakuen? Where are you?" He shivered and pulled the blanket up to his neck. "Jeez, did someone turn down the thermostat?" He felt the wind and turned to see that the screen door was open. "What? Is someone in here?" He shivered again. "Jeez, can't they at least close the door after themselves if they're gonna keep barging in without asking…" He stood up and dropped the blanket, wrapping his arms around himself for warmth, and moved towards the screen door. "Hey!" he called out. "Would you finish up out there already—?"

A jarring crash made him pause. _What the—? Wait, I can feel the other four. They're all in the house… Shin and Shu are in the kitchen, and Toma and Seiji are in their rooms… So who's…?_

He had only that moment to think before a large black tiger wearing shining white armor jumped through the door, straight at him.

"What the—?" He stumbled back, summoning his armor at the last second.

Before the creature could hit him, Byakuen ran in behind it and knocked it aside. Snarls and the thick sound of heavy flesh hitting heavy flesh filled the air.

"Byakuen!" Ryo drew his swords, ready to fight.

And then promptly stumbled backward into a wall with his fatigue. _Ahh! Dammit, I can't even attack like this! _The cracked metal was painful to look at, but he kept them out. He hoped he could at least get one attack off. Maybe two. _I wonder if I could try that trick Toma and Shin got to work. But I wouldn't be able to do it in a hurry. I couldn't even do it while I was concentrating and not under stress… Dammit, Byakuen, what's going on?_

The two tigers carried their fight out of the room and back onto the roof, shattering glass and wood in their wake. Ryo ran after them.

"What the hell is going on?" Toma asked as he ran into the room. He saw Ryo in his armor and stared, wide-eyed. "What—?" But the red senshi was out the door before he could answer. "Kuso! Wish someone would take a moment to tell me what was going on!" He summoned his armor and ran after Ryo. He felt Seiji run up behind him.

"Hey, what's all the—?"

"I don't know! Just get your armor on!"

Green light filled the room and Seiji followed him out onto the balcony.

Ryo had followed the two tigers onto the roof, and then onto the ground when they jumped down. "Byakuen! Be careful! Um… move, maybe so I can hit it too?" But the tigers both ignored him. They ran off into the woods, and Ryo chased after them, the other senshi close on his heels.

"Damn idiot!" Seiji said as he and Toma ran after the trio. "This is the same as last time!"

"He's got a nose for trouble!" Toma called.

"What's going on?" Shin asked, running behind them, Shu groggily in tow. "We heard the commotion and I saw you all were running away."

* * *

"It's only been a couple days since he's been awake," Shin said, hopping over roots and running over grass. "What's he planning to do if this is another trap?"

"The same thing he did last time, no doubt," Seiji replied. "Ride by the seat of his pants." There was no more talking as they followed him through the woods. Seiji was following his sense of Ryo's presence up ahead rather than searching through the dark. Plus, he could see the best of them all. It took a few tumbles from his comrades behind for him to create a light for the others to follow more easily.

_Jeez,_ Seiji thought, focused on the crashing ahead, _Just what are they fighting over? I don't like this at all. And… why is he faster than I am?_

They were now on the road and heading towards a valley. They had all reviewed maps of the area, to get a better handle of what they had at their disposal, places to avoid, and emergency hideouts, as well as good places to train. Toma had even visited the upcoming valley as a training site earlier in the day.

They spotted Ryo standing a short distance ahead, glowing red in the moonlight, and watching the two battling tigers in the distance. They ran up to him. Seiji dimmed his light.

"Ryo," Toma said as he put a hand on the senshi's shoulder, trying to not think too hard about the distance they just ran at what speed and how he did _not_ feel winded at all. "Are you all right?"

Ryo glanced back at them. His face was a little pale, but he looked fine otherwise. "I'm okay. Just trying to help Byakuen." He looked back at the tigers. "Byakuen started fighting while I was sleeping." He looked back at them. "I'm sorry I ran off. I would have slowed down for you, but I can't sense either of the tigers, so I didn't want to lose sight of them."

Seiji opened his mouth to reply, but Shin interrupted with, "As long as you're careful for next time. You could still use some recovery time, Ryo, and we're all worried about you."

"I'm sorry." _Beat me up later._ He looked back at the tigers. "I wish I knew where that black tiger came from."

Seiji turned his attention to the fight. "I can't sense anything from them, either. Do you feel anything, Shin?"

Shin frowned, was quiet for a moment, then shook his head. "No. Nothing."

"Then I guess it's not a demon," Toma said. "We'd feel it if it was."

"Well, what do we do?" Shu asked. "Attack?"

"No," Ryo replied. "We'd hit Byakuen."

"Then… get him to back off?" Shu asked. "Doesn't he like… listen to you when you give him commands, like a dog?"

"Not all the time," Ryo replied, choosing to ignore the 'like a dog' comment for the moment. "Plus, he's fighting. He's distracted. He might not hear me. He didn't listen to me earlier."

The black tiger jumped back from the fight, and Byakuen leapt back as well, still watching the other tiger. Ryo ran forward to stand beside Byakuen, prepared to help fight should the black tiger start the attack up again. "You okay, buddy?" Ryo glanced at the tiger, but saw no wounds - only dirt and ruffled fur. Byakuen stayed focused ahead. "Don't worry," Ryo said. "I can't do much, but you aren't alone." The other senshi moved up to stand behind them, wary.

"So is it just me," Shin asked, "Or is it a good idea to start running away now?"

Seiji looked up and drew his sword. "Demon approaching."

The others prepared their weapons as Kenbukyou materialized from the darkness. "Good evening," he said. "My name is Kenbukyou. I have come to fight you for the Shiroi Kikotei."

"You've got to be kidding…" Touma muttered.

Seiji glared and called out, "Why don't you just go back to the Nether Realm! You've existed for this long without the damn thing. Why are you people so obsessed with it now?"

"Well, we didn't know it existed before," the demon replied. "Arago now desires it."

"Arago's… still alive?" Shin asked.

"Sadly." The demon noticed the way the yoroi senshi tensed from that statement. "You thought a single blow could kill him? He is tougher than that. That's how he managed to take control of the Nether Realm" He looked at them curiously. "Which one of you bears the armor? I wish to fight that one." The black tiger stepped forward, and Kenbukyou drew the swords on the beast's back.

"Do you honestly think we'd fight another of you guys one-on-one?" Seiji called. "Just leave, and we won't kill you like we have your predecessors." He stepped in front of Ryo, surprising the red senshi.

"Seiji…?"

"Stay back," Seiji replied quietly, keeping his focus forward. "You can't fight like that. You don't have a weapon to use."

Ryo looked down at his damaged swords. They were a last resort. That was all. He breathed out heavily, and sheathed them. _Once more, I get protected by others. I get protected by my friends, and they put themselves in harm's way on my behalf._ He glared at Kenbukyou. The reason his friends were in danger. He hated the demons. Hated all the terrible things they'd thrown into his life.

_ Fight!_

His heart was racing and he had to take a step back and clench his hands into fists.

_Fight!_

_ No!_ He shut his eyes. _No, I won't! I won't summon you again. Stop it!_

_ Fight!_

_ Leave me alone! Just go away!_

The voice faded, and he was able to breathe easier. When he opened his eyes, Shu lay on the ground, having been knocked flat by Kenbukyou.

"You'll pay for that!" Shin said as he aimed at the demon, and then fired off a torrent of water in his direction. Kenbukyou dodged and ran forward to slash down at the senshi. Toma fired his Shin Ku Ha at the demon, causing him to jump back.

Ryo ran to Shu, who sat up slowly and grumbled, "Damn helmets. Bloody ringing in my ears."

"You all right, otherwise?" Ryo asked, looking the senshi over for wounds and finding none.

"Yeah," Shu replied, his voice dark as he stared at the battle, "I can still kill the guy."

Ryo flinched. _He sounds so angry… like the armor…_

_ Fight!_

Shu's armor began to glow orange.

"No!" Ryo cried. "Stop it!"

Shu's armor ceased to glow and he looked at Ryo in surprise. "What the hell? Ryo, what's wrong?"

Ryo didn't reply for a bit as he waited to be sure that the voice wasn't coming back. Then he replied, "The Shiroi Kikotei. It reacts to anger. Battle lust. Those emotions act like a summons and it just lashes out and I can barely keep it back when that happens…"

"You mean I almost…?"

"I think we both almost did. But I can hold it back for now. For a while, anyway." His face was paler and he started humming to keep his mind focused and drown out the voice, should it return.

Shu touched his left arm. _Jeez, no wonder he seems to be going crazy faster than all of us. _"Ryo…"

They heard a clang and a cry, and turned to see Seiji fly through the air and crash into the dirt a short distance away, throwing up dust in his wake. The demon stepped forward, brandishing his swords. Another burst of water crashed into the demon, smashing him into the cliff face behind him. Toma sent another Shin Ku Ha at him, making more of the cliff crumble down around the demon. Seiji pushed himself back up and fired off a Rai Ko Zan at the spot where the demon lay. Toma kept his bow aimed and Shin and Seiji stood ready to attack again. Shu pushed himself up and got into his own fighting stance. Byakuen growled and moved forward to stand beside Ryo.

The black tiger moved up to the pile of rubble and sniffed it. Laughter filled the air.

"Damn," Shin said. "What's it take to kill these things?"

"You definitely only have a piece of Arago's power," Kenbukyou said, standing up as the dust cleared without any obvious damage, outside the dust and dirt now covering his armor and cloak. "Your attacks are nothing in comparison to his."

"You've fought Arago?" Toma asked, his curiosity winning out over his focus.

"Toma…" Seiji warned.

The blue senshi ignored him and continued, "What happened? I thought all of you were Arago's minions."

"I am the strongest swordsman in the Nether Realm. I ruled my territory with strength and fear at my back and no one dared to face me, until the day an upcoming, arrogant demon with a growing reputation decided to try me, to boost his own reputation. I made the mistake of fighting with honor and believing that he stood by any rules. I struck him down and demanded that he yield and swear fealty. He swore to do so, and then took advantage of my pause to strike me and toss me down, calling me an old fool. My wound from that battle allowed him to take over my territory, and I became his servant." He reached to the scarred armor over his chest. "But that was long ago. I am here for the Shiroi Kikotei. Though I have no interest in seeing that insulting creature restored to his old power, it is his wish."

"Can't you refuse to fight for him?" Toma asked. "You're a samurai…" _Of sorts,_ he didn't add aloud. "Doesn't working for someone like Arago go against your code of honor?" _In whatever bastardized form demons have of one…_

"You know little of the Nether Realm and demons, human," Kenbukyou replied. "Arago only gained power after our battle. Even now, with what little power he stole back after he restored his armor and then lost much of it once more, he is too powerful for me. It would be suicide for me to fight him now. And what for? My land is but one part of his territory now. My people only lived in fear of me, and I only ruled them because it was convenient and an easy way to find new foes to battle. And I have the chance of finding a worthy opponent for the first time in a long time." He rolled his shoulders. "Although, from our current battle, that doesn't seem very apparent. None of you feel worth my time. To think that one of you pathetic weaklings possesses the Shiroi Kikotei… it boggles the mind."

_He's fighting us when we're weak,_ Shin thought, watching the demon. _None of us is really at full strength. We haven't demonstrated the power of the Shiroi Kikotei in this fight yet. These guys keep pounding us into the dirt and wonder _why_ we never seem strong?_

"But it matters not. I shall have the Shiroi Kikotei for Arago… or simply take it for myself to kill him with it. Humans could never use it properly. But I could."

"So come and try and get it," Seiji said, stepping forward.

Kenbukyou snorted. "More of the same? How futile." He eyed them all, and his gaze came to settle on Ryo. _Why does _that_ one not fight? Byakueno said that the white tiger protected him. To have the tiger would mean that he has some great power, yet he keeps to the back of the group and does not fight. He does not draw his weapons. He does not offer strategy. What is his purpose?_ He glanced at the others, and a spark of suspicion filled him. _They protect him, all of them. They move to keep him in the back. Run at me at once to keep my notice from him. None of these four have the power of the Shiroi Kikotei. Perhaps _he _does…_

Rather than attacking on his own, he raised his swords and cried out, "Winged Angel of Doom!" The wind picked up, grabbing up dirt and rock from the ground and moving faster and faster until a tornado filled with sharp pieces of rock was formed. The wind dragged and caught at the yoroi senshi as they tried to get back, pelting them with sharp bits of rock as they were dragged into the cyclone. They were thrown around in circles as they cried out and struggled to free themselves. None of them were able to focus enough to attack Kenbukyou, assuming they could even target him from the way they were being tossed around.

In a final burst of wind, the cyclone broke and the yoroi senshi were thrown in different directions. Byakuen, Seiji and Shin crashed into different spots of the cliff face. Shu and Toma were thrown a ways off into the dirt. Ryo was thrown to the tree line. As he tried to get up, groggy from it all, Kenbukyou hit him in the head with the hilt of one of his swords, knocking the senshi out. The demon then picked him up and tossed him onto Byakueno's back. They raced away from the scene.

* * *

A/N: DOOOOM! Copyright, Arago and the Demon Realm. That is all.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

_How many years has it been?_ Kenbukyou thought as he stood on the hard gravel and looked down at the red senshi sleeping there. Byakueno growled and stepped closer to the demon. Kenbukyou patted him on the head. "Yes. A long time. It was nice to fight someone strong again. The others were something of an amusement, but maybe if I can draw this 'Shiroi Kikotei' out, there'll be a real challenge to be had." He touched the old scar on his chest. The constant reminder of his shame…

"No matter what happens here, Byakueno, whether I win or fail, Arago will no longer be a problem to us. I may take this new armor and use it against him, or, in defeating it, I'll prove that I can defeat Arago. Certainly with the power output these senshi have exhibited, that shouldn't be too difficult. Or… I'll no longer be around to challenge him. Whatever the case, I am done standing in fear of him."

There was a roar and Byakuen burst out of the darkness, moving to stand protectively over Ryo. He snarled at Kenbukyou and Byakueno.

The black tiger started to move forward, but Kenbukyou stopped him with a hand gesture. "No offense, old friend, but I have no interest in fighting the boy's _pet. _So this is your friend… It's like an odd, unarmored, moonlit mirror. You'll have to tell me sometime where you tigers come from." Ryo's arm twitched and Kenbukyou turned to look at the senshi. "Ah, the boy wakes…"

When Ryo woke up, he found himself lying facedown in the dirt. He sat up and winced as a painful ringing filled his head. He blinked and realized that it was getting lighter. _How long was I unconscious?_

"Awake at last, yoroi senshi?"

Ryo turned to see Kenbukyou standing a distance off, patting the black tiger's head. "It's been long enough."

Byakuen stood between them, and Ryo stood up and drew close to him, touching his fur, unsure of the situation. "Byakuen…? Where are the others?"

"Byakuen?" Kenbukyou said, "Interesting. That was the name of the beast that fought beside the warrior that vanquished Arago. You are blessed, boy."

Ryo looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"The company of a tiger like that is a great honor to only the strongest of warriors. Byakueno has been with me for many centuries. A gift after I defeated many warriors in single combat." He patted the black tiger's head. "How did you get yours?"

"…He's just been around me for a long time. Did you drag me here to talk about tigers or to fight?"

"I was only curious, boy. I have not fought a human opponent in some time, and now, at long last, he happens to be a warrior with the same weapon type as I," he put his hand on the sheathed hilt of one of the swords on Byakueno's side. "And he has a tiger as a companion. And he bears the Shiroi Kikotei. A truly astonishing culmination of fortunes. I wonder if it is a sign."

"A sign of what?" _Jeez, demons are talkative… Maybe he'll just go on and I can get out of here…_ Ryo looked around to get a better bearing on where he was. He still felt a little wobbly from earlier, and he felt a bruise on his head. Plus, the armor was weighing down on him.

"I have no idea. When you are as old as I am, maybe you'll know the answer. In your next life, at least." He unsheathed the swords and said, "Are you ready to fight now, Yoroi Senshi?"

Ryo reached for his own swords and hesitated. _I can't fight him. They're last resorts. Judging from how he handled the others, he'll shatter them in a single blow, and then I'll have nothing to fight with. Even if the Shiroi Kikotei gets summoned, what will it fight with? Will it just fix them? I'm still healing… what will the priority be? Kill me so it gets its 'fight' urge off?_

Watching Touma and Shin experiment with pure energy weapons came to mind. _But I still can't try to accomplish that here! I don't have enough time. And if I knock myself out, he might just do what Sarenbo did. And I might not be so lucky this time, especially when I don't know what condition the others are in._ He felt them, dimly, some distance away. Not close enough to do much in the near future.

_ I should run._ It hurt to consider. He didn't think himself a coward. After everything that happened, it hurt to think of that. It brought back the memories of his battle with Arago. Had nothing changed since then? Was he even worse than he'd been? _The others would want me to run. I can't fight. We all know that. And keeping the Shiroi Kikotei out of the enemy's hands is better than keeping my pride intact._

_ But he's a demon! If I turn tail now, he could strike me from behind! Even if he was being honest about that story, I have no idea what a demon considers 'honorable'. If he kills me here… I could stall a bit, maybe, until the others find me. They aren't dead and they're definitely on their way._

_ So, saved again. Waiting for them to save me. Hiding behind others for protection. I'm so pathetic._

"I won't fight an unarmed opponent, boy," Kenbukyou said. "Draw your blade!"

Ryo glared and put his hands on his sword hilts. Then he staggered as an image flashed through his head, this time not of his own thoughts.

_Arago's ghostly hand grabbed up Shutendoji, devoured the Mashou, and then fully materialized._

_ Arago, absorbing the energy of the Tokyo residents._

_ Touma looking at him and saying, "We're stronger in environments relating to our elements. Like we're taking some latent energy in the air or something."_

_ "It's too cold in here!"_

_ "It's just energy manipulation. Demons are pure energy. We've had experiences dealing with this all along. We just need to experiment with it."_

_ Where did that come from?_ He wondered. But still, Ryo eyed Kenbukyou's swords. _Do I… could I even… Is it that simple?_ Then he blanched. _I'd be just like Arago. The Shiroi Kikotei absorbs energy from the other armors – from my friends – to form itself. But this time I'd be absorbing energy from another _demon_… I'd be grabbing up demonic energy like food. What if I become more like Arago? What if I can't stop after that much?_

…_But what choice do I have?_

"Still waiting, boy. I have no desire to fight dishonorably, but even I have a limited patience."

Ryo glanced at Byakuen. _Wish you could hear my thoughts, buddy. I could use your help here. Although I guess the less chance you have to get hurt, the better._ He drew his swords.

Kenbukyou laughed and said, "At last…" But then he got a better look at Ryo's blades in the growing sunlight. "What is this foolishness? _Those_ are your weapons?"

Ryo glared. "I can still fight. But if _you_ don't want to…"

"I am not so cowardly as to fight an opponent with no weapon!" He turned aside.

"So you're running away?" _Please just go. I really don't want to do this…_

Kenbukyou stopped and turned back. "Never. I shall have the Shiroi Kikotei. I will simply hit each one of you until I discover which of you has it. I thought it was you, until I saw those… sad excuses for weapons."

"I won't let you hurt my friends," Ryo replied, getting into a fighting stance. "And I _will_ fight."

Kenbukyou snorted. "You are a fool. A dead fool. Very well." The demon stood ready, and then ran forward. Ryo aimed, cried "Sou en Zan!" and threw a barrage of fire at the demon.

* * *

"What the hell was that?" Shu spat out, searching for the demon as he sat up from where he'd been lying, face-down in the dirt. "Where are you? Come out here so I can kill you!"

"Chill, Shu," Shin said, standing up with a wince. He looked around. "Anyone see Ryo?"

Seiji looked around and then turned and started running. "This way. Come on!"

* * *

Ryo felt the swords shatter and stumbled forward halfway through the attack, coughing in pain.

"Was that all?" Kenbukyou fell to the ground – he'd simply jumped into the air to dodge the attack, and was entirely unharmed.

Then Byakuen jumped him, snatching the sword in his left hand from him before he could fully comprehend what was happening. Byakueno jumped for the white tiger, but Byakuen was already away. He dropped the sword at Ryo's feet and turned to fight once more with the black tiger. Ryo dropped the broken remains of his weapons and snatched up the sword.

_If I knew you were telepathic, Byakuen…_ The senshi turned back to Kenbukyou, holding the weapon. "Now we're even," He said. _Although I don't know how well the attack will work with just one sword, especially one that isn't mine._

"A cowardly move. Stealing my own weapon for yourself."

Ryo tested the new sword as Kenbukyou eyed him. The hilt was ornate but worn with use. It had a good weight to it, and there was clear strength in it. "You attacked us in our home, dragged us out to the middle of nowhere, knocked me unconscious, and basically kidnapped me, and you're threatening all of us with pain and death. Also, you're a demon. I don't think you can make any claims about cowardice at the moment."

Kenbukyou laughed. "Quite. Although…" He eyed Ryo thoughtfully. "I have to wonder how well you will fight with only one sword…"

"Probably as well as you," Ryo replied. "Your attack earlier used two blades. How well will it do with just one?"

"Two is good, but I can still fight with just this one as a focus. Can _you_ handle a demon's blade?"

"I handle my armor just fine, and it was Arago's once, and you said he was stronger than you."

"I said he beat me with a cheat. But it also looks to me like you certainly handled your swords well." He looked pointedly at the shattered remnants on the ground.

Ryo flushed and held the sword in his hand a bit tighter. Then a smile came over his face. "Then if you value this," he gestured at the weapon, "You'd best take it from me, fast. The Shiroi Kikotei doesn't treat its toys very well. Like my _swords_."

"Aah… so you _do_ have the Shiroi Kikotei! Well then, that makes things simple." Kenbukyou readied himself. "All I need to do is kill you, and you've made that even easier for me."

"Did you already forget that we both only have one sword now?" Ryo tried to keep his nerves out of his voice.

_Fight!_

_Not now!_

"No boy. We are both swordsmen. But I am a demon. You are simply human. You've handled what fraction of Arago's power you have, but I am older than even he, and I wonder if you can handle such a sword as mine."

Ryo frowned and looked down at the weapon. He could feel the odd energy in it. It had a murky feeling to it, but when he touched the blade with his other hand, the murkiness began to fade. It even began to feel warm. He started to feel more awake, and the pain faded just a bit. He stood straighter.

"What? How dare you!" Kenbukyou cried as he raised his sword and cast his attack once more. Ryo jumped on Byakuen and they managed to flee this time, as the attack took longer to form. Ryo could only assume that it was due to Kenbukyou's having only one sword to work with.

"I'll kill you, senshi!" There was pure bloodlust in his voice now.

_Fight!_

"Shut up!" Ryo hissed.

Byakuen ignored him and took them up the bank and away.

After the voice faded, Ryo was able to "see" the others before they appeared.

"Ryo!" Seiji called, running forward with a smile on his face, "You're all right!" They were all covered in dirt and other detritus, but they looked fine, physically, and they were all-bright-eyed as they looked at him.

Byakuen came to a stop and Ryo dismounted.

"He's right behind us," Ryo said, moving the sword aside.

Touma stared at the weapon and Ryo continued, "We stole it from him. It's a long story."

"Come back you coward!" Kenbukyou called. "Our fight is not done!"

"Can you fight with that?" Seiji asked, looking at the blade dubiously.

"I think so," Ryo replied. "Somehow it feels just like one of mine."

"Well, we can try and overwhelm him again," Touma replied, aiming for where Kenbukyou's voice emanated. "There's five of us now, and he's missing a sword, unless he can just make another."

"I don't think so," Ryo replied. "Or it could just take more time than he's had. But I can tell that he's weaker without it. I think it's just like our weapons – a part of his power. He attacks slower."

"Let's hope he's weaker elsewhere, too," Seiji said.

"Since Ryo has a weapon now," Shin said quietly, "should we consider summoning the Shiroi Kikotei?"

"What?" Shu laughed. "Shin, are you nuts? Why would we—!"

"Because maybe it's our only option," Shin replied. "We're not hurting him. Speed wasn't our problem last time. Our attacks just weren't _hurting_ him."

Touma looked at Ryo, who was studiously not looking at the others, and studying the sword instead. "Ryo…?"

_Fight!_

The red senshi tightened his grip on the sword hilt. "If I have to, I will." He looked up at them all, his gaze hard. "But you need to get away if I do. I don't know what one sword will do to the attack."

The others looked at him in concern and prepared themselves for a fight.

Byakueno and Kenbukyou came rushing forward out of the darkness and stopped to face them all. "Well, awake at last? Fine. I'll just take you all out at once." He started to cast his attack, but Touma fired another Shin Ku Ha at him, dodging aside as Shu cast his own attack at the demon. Kenbukyou dodged Touma's arrow, but fell to the ground from the earthquakes generated by Shu's attack. Seiji leapt in and struck down at the demon with his Rai Ko Zan, but Kenbukyou got up and leapt aside before he could be struck, only to be hit squarely by Shin's Cho Ryu Ha, which knocked the demon backwards. As he tried to get up, Ryo threw out a Sou En Zan, knocking him back down.

Byakueno lunged at Touma, who was standing a ways off and aiming at the demon once more. Byakuen leapt at the black tiger, knocking him aside. Touma fired more arrows at Kenbukyou and Shu attacked with another Gan Tessai. Kenbukyou leapt into the sky, raised his sword, and managed to start his attack before the senshi could stop him once more.

"Scatter!" Touma yelled as the winds began to pull together. Everyone followed suit. Unfortunately, Kenbukyou had been targeting Ryo, and the senshi was just barely caught, picked up, and tossed into the air. He shut his eyes against the wind and pulled his limbs inward to ward off some of the rocks and dirt.

_Fight!_

_I might die… I don't want to die… But the others fought for me. They deserve the same from me._

_Fight!_

He focused. He didn't want to _give in_ to the Shiroi Kikotei. But he did want to summon it. And if he _didn't_, Kenbukyou would probably kill them all anyway. _Come out, Shiroi Kikotei. Let's finish this._ He felt the warmth of the armor blanket him and leapt out of the tornado with the onrush of power.

Kenbukyou dropped to the ground beneath him. "At last," he murmured.

Touma retreated into the trees nearby and met up with the others. Shu was limping and being supported by Shin. Seiji sat by a tree and kept watch on the fight, even though he was sweating heavily. Touma looked them all over. They still had their full armor on. "I wonder if that's why we're weak. We have to keep our armors up without that extra power." He looked back up at the sky. "Ryo…"

* * *

_That's weird_, Ryo thought as he easily dodged a second attack from Kenbukyou. _The armor hasn't taken over. I guess I should just go for it._ He raised the single sword awkwardly above his head in preparation for the attack. He felt heat coating the blade from the armor, but the blade showed no wear as of yet. _It lasted through the Sou en Zan. Let's hope it lasts through this._

He waited until Kenbukyou was starting another attack and so could not move out of the way, before he cried, "Rage… of… Inferno!"

The two attacks struck at each other with a great smash, their users standing by, waiting for the outcome, focusing on channeling as much power as they could. Ryo frowned at the soft, cool breeze on his face.

Kenbukyou, on the other hand, felt as if he'd leapt inside a furnace.

_So this is the end after all…_ He reached for Byakueno. _Goodbye, old friend… Go with the senshi if you can, and see Arago dead for me…_

The other yoroi senshi turned away in the resulting flash of light and the splinters from the destruction wreaked by the two attacks hitting each other. After the light faded, they looked out from their bedraggled cover.

Ryo stood alone, still wearing the Shiroi Kikotei. Byakueno stood beside the fallen body of Kenbukyou a short distance away from him. The demon was covered in burns and soon faded from sight. The black tiger roared at the sky, and Ryo watched him, waiting. Byakuen approached from behind Ryo and came to stand by the senshi.

The four senshi stepped out and walked up to them. "So," Shu asked, "Do we kill the tiger, too?"

"Wait," Shin said. Byakueno put his head down and approached Ryo. Byakuen growled a warning, but did not choose to attack. The black tiger stopped before its white counterpart and bowed his head.

_It's like he wants… But shouldn't he want to avenge his master? _Ryo stepped forward and put his hand hesitantly on the cat's back. Then Byakueno's body shimmered and faded away. The shimmer floated to Byakuen and coated the tiger in light.

"What the—?" Seiji said.

_It's a gift_, Ryo knew, watching Byakuen as the tiger simply stood there, relaxed, covered in the shimmer. A part of him was still terrified for Byakuen, but another part simply knew that this was a gift, with no harm intended. The two tigers were connected somehow, and probably more connected to the spirit side of things than any of the yoroi senshi could imagine.

Byakuen put up his head and roared, and the shimmer faded. Ryo took a step back in surprise when he saw not Byakuen, but Byakueno standing before him – black fur, armor, and the single sword Kenbukyou had remaining, back in its sheath. The tiger roared again, and Ryo moved forward, sheathing his stolen sword in the empty sheath. Byakueno looked at him and Ryo saw the red eyes. _Oh Byakuen…_

He staggered, then, and he wondered, as blackness threatened to overcome him, _I've never deactivated this on my own… Maybe it's like the regular armor?_ He closed his eyes and tried to deactivate the armor normally. It was like stepping out of a warm jacket. He stood once more in his sub-yoroi and felt a chill in the night air. He opened his eyes and looked down at Byakuen, who was back to normal as well. Ryo smiled, knelt down, and hugged the tiger. "Glad you're back, buddy." The tiger seemed otherwise unchanged, and didn't seem to mind when Ryo sagged forward on him, feeling very, very tired.

The others came forward and deactivated their armor, breathing a sigh of relief that they were all okay.

Seiji watched Ryo and thought, _He's not unconscious. He wore the Shiroi Kikotei and he's fine… As far as I can see, anyway. And… is that Byakuen?_ He could feel an odd _new_ presence where Byakuen stood. It was small, but it was definitely separate from Ryo's.

"We're going to have to talk about this," Seiji said to Touma, quietly.

The blue-haired senshi looked at him. "I don't even really know where to start." He looked back at Ryo and raised his voice, "Ryo?" The red senshi looked up. "Let's head back to the house. We're in the open here, and with our luck, another demon will show up and attack us."

Ryo stood, staggered a bit, and was caught by Byakuen, who moved forward so that he fell onto the tiger's back. Ryo looked down at him, grateful, moving so that he was seated on the tiger's back. Byakuen carried him back as they walked back to the house, the others walking around them.

"Are you feeling okay?" Touma asked.

"A little tired, but otherwise fine."

"Interesting…"

"I think I got some of Kenbukyou's power from those swords. Either he made them or he had them so long that they had part of his spiritual power."

"Wait," Shu said, "You _stole power_ from a demon?"

"Our armors are demonic in origin, Shu," Seiji replied. "Every time we use them to fight, every time we use our power to create the Shiroi Kikotei, we're doing that."

"But we didn't steal energy from the Demon Mashou," Shu said, "Or Sarenbo."

"We stole some from Aragon in the final battle… Or the last battle we had with him, anyway," Touma replied. "Plus, Ryo couldn't fight with his swords. He didn't have a choice. We have to keep the armors out of the hands of the Nether Realm."

"You steal weapons from your opponents in desperate times?" Shin asked.

"If I ran out of arrows," Touma replied, "I would look for those of my enemies, and those I shot into my enemies. If I needed protection, I would find a shield to use, wherever I could. Being creative and surviving are not dishonorable because you didn't condemn yourself to death by not trying to improve yourself and your situation."

"History is full of people stealing from others," Seiji continued. "Resources, land, people. People who want to take the upper hand over their fellows. We do it, it's happened. Get over it."

"I just…" Shu started.

"You just what?" Seiji demanded.

Shu stopped walking, so the others had to pause to look back at him. "I keep thinking about Arago. How he absorbed all of us, to power up. It's bad enough that the Shiroi Kikotei seems to do that on a small scale, but we work with what we're given. Plus, we get our power back afterwards, while with Arago, we would have stayed wherever we were, or faded away. But we've never really done anything like… purposefully steal from another person, demon or not, for power. It's too much like what Arago was doing. If we…"

"If we can do that," Ryo interrupted, "What else can we do that he did? How else are we similar to him? And what does that make us? The Demon Mashou were humans that Arago recruited because they shared his values. Will we be like them? Like the Demon Mashou? Like demons? And since I… since I started it… What does that say about me?"

Silence reigned after he finished.

"Ryo…" Shin quietly began.

Ryo's eyes were facing the ground, though, and he didn't look at the other senshi. "I think… I think I'm gonna sleep. It's been a weird day and I woke up earlier than I should have because of all this. And my tiger's been possessed or mutated or something and I think he should probably sleep, too. We'll meet you back at the house." _Run, Byakuen._ The tiger growled and took off, leaving the other senshi in the dust.

Seiji punched Shu's shoulder, making the other senshi stumble.

"Hey!" Shu cried, rubbing the bruised spot. "What was that for?"

"For being an idiot. You upset him."

"By doing what?"

"You called him a demon," Touma replied, quietly.

"What? No I—"

"Yes, we did," Shin interrupted. "We really did."

"Oh come on! He could have—I mean… I didn't mean it that way!"

"Well, he took it that way," Seiji said. "It was obvious from the way he was acting."

"How the heck should I know that?" Shu asked. "He sleeps like, all the time, and now he reacts like this, I mean… what?"

Shin was looking at him sadly. "Shu… what do you know about Ryo?"

"Um… what are you—I don't… he's just a guy."

"Good, you've identified his gender," Touma said. "That's a start."

"Oh come on!" Shu cried. "What do you want me to say?" He scratched his head. "He's… I guess he's quiet. When we first met. He never talks much. He… he keeps to himself. Heck, you'd think he and Byakuen talk to each other with the way they react to each other. Which is weird, because tigers don't talk…"

"He is quiet," Seiji said. "A better description might be 'self-contained'. It's a ninja trait. They're quiet. Stealthy. You don't really notice they're around that way. People who do that, especially warriors, tend to be less open to sharing their problems. We watched the guy regain the use of his legs and arms. That's… traumatic. And it's embarrassing for anyone to be unable to take care of themselves. All of this, on top of the fact that he's different from all of us. He has the Shiroi Kikotei. None of us have something like that. For once, we aren't a group. We don't fully share that burden. He's different, he's in pain, he's desperate not to fail, and on top of that, you just called him a monster."

"But I—!"

"You didn't come up with the idea of taking the sword from Kenbukyou. None of us did. Ryo did. He may be an idiot at times, but he's got a brain and he can think, and he can figure lots of stuff out. Did you ever think that _maybe_ he considered what doing what he did would mean? Did you ever think that maybe that scares him just as much as it scares us?"

"Scares...?"

"I think it would scare any sane person. It's certainly scaring me. And it's obvious that it's scaring you. He just _ran_. The guy who tried to fight a known powerful enemy on his own, twice, just _ran_ from friends. From people who have had his back in fights. What does that tell you?"

Shu opened his mouth to reply, but stopped and turned his head away.

"Our communication skills are awful," Touma said. "Small children could do better. We should have another meeting after Ryo gets up and just… talk. No drama. No fighting. Just talk."

They continued walking to the house in silence.

* * *

A/N: I remember well that beautiful scene where Ryo runs into the woods after being told off by Touma, and he gets trapped by the bamboo and Jun tries to comfort him. Let it not be said that this scene didn't show up in some form. A highly transfigured, mostly unrecognizable form, but, well… Maybe for another day.

Out of curiosity, if I were to produce a secondary version of the story that had the other form of their names (Sage, Cye, Kento, White Blaze, Lord Saberstryke, etc.), would anyone like that? Nothing else would be changed - just the names. I know a lot of people are more familiar with the dub names. I've been considering it, and I'm not planning to change/remove this version (just keep this version here and have a second copy with the dub names), but it's a thought for the future.


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